THEISTIC NATURALISM AND “SPECIAL” DIVINE PROVIDENCE

Author: Knight, Christopher C.

Source: Zygon, Volume 44, Number 3, September 2009 , pp. 533-542(10)

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Abstract:

Although naturalistic perspectives are an important component of their accounts of divine action, most participants in the current dialogue between science and theology eschew a purely naturalistic model. They believe that certain events of divine providence require a special mode of divine action, over and above that inherent in naturalistic processes. The analogy of human providential action suggests, however, that a strong theistic naturalism can account for these events. This model does not depend on a particular notion of God's relationship to time and is not inherently implausible from a scientific perspective. Although it can be interpreted deistically, the model also is consonant with a nondeistic theology that may be described as involving a pansacramental or incarnational naturalism.

Keywords: divine action; naturalism; panentheism; pansacramentalism; providence

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2009.01014.x

Affiliations: 1: Executive Secretary of the International Society for Science and Religion and a research associate of the Von Hügel Institute at St.Edmund's College, Cambridge, England. His mailing address is ISSR Office, St.Edmund's College, Cambridge CB3 0BN, Great Britain.

Publication date: 2009-09-01