Re: Coercion

On 4/23/04 10:31 AM, "Alexanian, Moorad" <alexanian@uncw.edu> wrote:

> One is always on tenuous ground when discussing how God interacts with
> His creation. The only thing we can be certain of is how humans try to
> make sense of all that we can detect by human or physical devices.

AND by disciplined reflection on the totality of the human experience.

> Certainly the human vision of creation is based on us being creatures
> and part of the physical universe.

Agreed.

> God's view is from "outside," which
> we can NEVER imagine nor understand---unless by divine revelation.

I find this statement typical of a theological tradition that places so much
emphasis of the idea of divine transcendence that reflection on divine
immanence is effectively suppressed.

As I once wondered if we need to develop a more robust concept of
non-coercive divine action (in the context of so much emphasis on coercive
supernatural intervention), so also I wonder if we need to develop a more
robust concept of divine immanence (in the context of so much emphasis on
divine transcendence).

In fact, I would see these two questions closely related. Are not the ideas
of supernatural intervention and transcendence closely related? Similarly,
are not the ideas of non-coercive divine action and divine immanence also
closely related?

[And, I might also suggest, there may be a similar connection between the
idea of supernatural action and the idea of revelation by means of biblical
inspiration of the (YEC and others) sort that we were talking about
recently.]

Howard Van Till
Received on Fri Apr 23 11:05:28 2004