Re: [asa] God as Cause

Bill -

You're right that there is some parallel between God's action in the world generally and the Incarnation. The Sixth Ecumenical Council stated the Christ had "two natural wills and operations [or "energies" - energeia]," human and divine, which were in accord in everything he did. I.e., his divine and human natures posssessed the wills and operations characteristic of those natures.This was in opposition to the proposal that he had only one will (monotheletism) and operation (monoergism), & those divine. That would have meant that Christ did not actually do anything as human. & in fact the view which the council rejected corresponds to the idea that God does everything in the world directly.

Note, however, that there was no attempt to describe the mechanism by which the divine and human natures work together. & in the same way, as I've said before, there are limits to our abilities to describe how divine and created agents cooperate in making things happen in the world. The instrumental analogy is just that, an analogy. What is sometimes referred to as "the search for the causal joint" is misguided, and attempt to treat theology as if it were physics.

I shouldn't give the impression that the instrumental model I suggested is the only one possible. Chapter 12 of Ian Barbour's Religion and Science discusses 9 different theologies of divine action with corresponding models, & is not exhaustive.. Some are (I think) clearly inadequate but this would give you an idea of the scope of possibilities.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Bill Green
  To: asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 3:46 PM
  Subject: Re: [asa] God as Cause

     "the differing metaphysical levels of primary and secondary causation require us to say that any created effect comes totally and immediately from God as the transcendent primary cause and totally and immediately from the creature as secondary cause."

    It does not make sense to me to speak of God as primary cause without defining the relationship between the primary and secondary causes. The craftsman uses the tool, for example, but in the case of nature, the tool works on its own (according to naturalistic science), so we seem to have lost the necessary connection.

    The only way I can conceive that such a primary/secondary cause idea would work in light of naturalistic, closed causal loop science is if the idea similar to the incarnation: God and man fully in Christ, God's activity and physical activity fully in nature. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and God is in nature working out his purposes. Of course, this is a mystery, but it is clear that we could speak of God controlling all events if we view natural process as the incarnation of God's activity or will.

    I suppose that would fit the scriptural criteria in that it allows for God's active and sovereign role and yet allows for the separation between God and creation, but it leaves the question of whether a natural explanation is in any sense complete.

    Certainly a physical account of Jesus' life is in no sense complete.

    How is it scriptural acceptable to speak of anything as being outside of God's Lordship? We are to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ, for from Him, through Him and to Him are all things.

    I struggle with this as a teacher. When I present natural laws and phenomena from a naturalistic perspective, without mention of God (I can't speak of God in a public school science class), I am afraid that I am violating these scriptural principles. How can any natural explanation be complete without mention of it's primary cause? It is like studying the paintings of Monet without acknowledging the one who painted them, or even that anyone in particular painted them.

    In fact, it's worse, because my silence teaches my students that it is possible or even an established fact that it all "just happened." If nature can create and run itself, then what is the place for any God? The question is not even raised.

    Thanks,

    Bill Green

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Received on Fri Jan 12 20:12:12 2007