Re: [asa] An Evolutionary Theory of Right and Wrong

----- Original Message -----
From: "Terry M. Gray" <grayt@lamar.colostate.edu>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2006 10:53 AM
Subject: Re: [asa] An Evolutionary Theory of Right and Wrong

> Pim,
>
> In that case I'd probably disagree rather strongly with you. God is
> necessary for whatever happens. Reality does not exist apart from his
> sustaining role. "Nature" does not exist autonomously of His governance
> and concurrence. However, it may be the case that God acts in such a way
> via secondary causation that he appears "superfluous". That is to say
> that He governs and concurs with secondary causes and other agents in a
> such a way that the action can be attributed to the secondary cause. I'm
> not 100% that I actually believe this, but, in fact, much of our
> understanding of the world (science broadly construed) seems to be
> consistent with such a "hidden" role for God.
>
> So, using your words I am saying that God both involved and necessary.
> God is only superfluous in the sense that we can explain at some level
> phenomena without appealing to Him.

I think, following Eberhard Juengel (in _God as the Mystery of the World_)
that there is a better way to say this. He argues for the "worldly
nonnecessity of God" because necessity "is a category which does not reach
too high for God but which does not reach as far as God. The proposition
'God is necessary' is a poor proposition. It is not worthy of God."
Instead Juengel wants to say that God is "more than necessary" (pp.24-25).

This sounds like very abstract philosophy & Juengel does do a good deal on
subtle distinctions of different senses of necessity &c. He is not easy
reading. But his basic purpose is theologicalical - to explicate
Bonhoeffer's insights about the knowability of the world /etsi deus non
daretur/ on the way to formulation of a "theology of the Crucified One."

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/

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Received on Wed Nov 1 11:56:55 2006