Content uploaded by Ignacio Silva
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Ignacio Silva on Aug 26, 2021
Content may be subject to copyright.
Providence and Science in a World of
Contingency
Providence and Science in a World of Contingency offers a novel assessment of
the contemporary debate over divine providential action and the natural sci-
ences, suggesting a re-consideration of Thomas Aquinas’metaphysical doctrine
of providence coupled with his account of natural contingency. By looking at
the history of debates over providence and nature, the volume provides a set of
criteria to evaluate providential divine action models, challenging the under-
lying, theologically contentious assumptions of current discussions on divine
providential action. Such assumptions include that God needs causally open
spaces in the created world in order to act in it providentially, and the unfitting
conclusion that, if this is the case, then God is assumed to act as another cause
among causes. In response to these shortcomings, the book presents a compre-
hensive account of Aquinas’metaphysics of natural causation, contingency, and
their relation to divine providence. It offers a fresh and bold metaphysical nar-
rative, based on the thought of Thomas Aquinas, which appreciates the relation
between divine providence and natural contingency.
Ignacio Silva is Associate Professor of Theology and Science at the Instituto de
Filosofía, Universidad Austral, Argentina, and Associate Member of the Ian
Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, University of Oxford, UK.
Routledge Science and Religion Series
Series editors:
Michael S. Burdett, University of Nottingham, UK
Mark Harris, University of Edinburgh, UK
Science and religion have often been thought to be at loggerheads but much
contemporary work in this flourishing interdisciplinary field suggests this is far
from the case. The Science and Religion Series presents exciting new work to
advance interdisciplinary study, research and debate across key themes in sci-
ence and religion. Contemporary issues in philosophy and theology are debated,
as are prevailing cultural assumptions. The series enables leading international
authors from a range of different disciplinary perspectives to apply the insights
of the various sciences, theology, philosophy and history in order to look at the
relations between the different disciplines and the connections that can be made
between them. These accessible, stimulating new contributions to key topics
across science and religion will appeal particularly to individual academics and
researchers, graduates, postgraduates and upper-undergraduate students.
Intersections of Religion and Astronomy
Edited by Aaron Ricker, Chris J. Corbally, and Darry Dinnell
Divine and Human Providence
Philosophical, Psychological and Theological Approaches
Edited by Ignacio Silva and Simon Kopf
Islam and Evolution
Al-Ghazālīand the Modern Evolutionary Paradigm
Shoaib Ahmed Malik
Toward a Theology of Scientific Endeavour
The Descent of Science
Christopher B. Kaiser
Providence and Science in a World of Contingency
Thomas Aquinas’Metaphysics of Divine Action
Ignacio Silva
For more information and a full list of titles in the series, please visit: https://
www.routledge.com/religion/series/ASCIREL
Providence and Science in a
World of Contingency
Thomas Aquinas’Metaphysics of Divine
Action
Ignacio Silva
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Ignacio Silva
The right of Ignacio Silva to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-032-00276-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-00278-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-17346-5 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003173465
Typeset in Sabon
by Taylor & Francis Books
For Agustina, Felicitas, and Joaquín
Contents
List of abbreviations of Thomas Aquinas’works ix
Introduction 1
1 Digging for criteria: A metaphysical history of divine providence 12
2 Science and providence today 32
3 A metaphysics of natural contingency 58
4 A metaphysics of God’s providence 83
5 Thomas Aquinas today 117
Final thoughts on Aquinas, contingency, and providence 139
Bibliography 150
Index 158
List of abbreviations of Thomas Aquinas’
works
1
Summa Theologiae (1266–73) S.Th.
Summa Contra Gentiles (1259–64) SCG
De Ente et Essentia (1252/56) De Ente
De Substantiis Separatis (1271) De Subs. Sep.
De Principiis Naturae (1252/56) De Prin. Nat.
Compendium Theologiae (1269–73) Comp. Theo.
Quaestiones Disputatae De Malo (1266–67) De Malo
Quaestiones Disputatae De Potentia Dei (1265–66)
2
De Pot.
Quaestiones Disputatae De Veritate (1256–59) De Ver.
Quaestio Disputata De Spiritualibus Creaturis (1267–68) De Spirit. Creat.
Quaestio Disputata De Anima (1265–66) De An.
Quaestio Disputata De Virtutibus (1271–72)
3
De Virt.
Quaestio De Quodlibet 1 (1269) Quod. 1
Scriptum super libros Sententiarum (1251–56)
4
In Sent.
Expositio in librum Boethii De Hebdomadibus (1256–59) In De Heb.
Super Boetium De Trinitate (1257–58) In De Trin.
Expositio super librum De Causis (1271–72) In De Causis
Expositio super Dionysium De Divinis Nominibus
(1265–67)
5
In De Div. Nom.
In Psalmos Davidis Expositio (c. 1273)
6
In Psalm.
Super Evangelium S. Ioannis lectura (1270–72) In Io.
Sententia libri Metaphysicae (1269–72)
7
In Met.
Commentaria in octo libros Physicorum (1269–70) In Phys.
Expositio libri Peri Hermeneias (1270–71) In Peri Her.
In libros Aristotelis De caelo et mundo expositio
(1272–73) De Cae. Et Mun.
In librum Aristotelis De generatione et corruptione
expositio (1272–73) In Gen. et Corr.
Sententia libri De Anima (1269–70) In De An.
Sententia libri Ethicorum (1271) Sent. Eth.
Sententia super Meteora (1269–73) In Meteor.
Notes
1Aquinas’works, unless otherwise expressed in this list, are taken from the Leonine edition:
Sancti Thomae de Aquino Opera omnia iussu Leonis XIII P.M. edita, Rome, 1882–.
2Ed. PM Pession, Marietti, Taurini-Romae, 1965.
3In Quaestiones disputatae, t. 2, Marietti, Taurini-Romae, 1965.
4Ed. P. Mandonnet, Lethielleux, Parisiis, 1929.
5Ed. C. Pera, P. Caramello, C. Mazzantini; Marietti, Taurini-Romae, 1950.
6Ed. R. Busa, Frommann-Hoolzbog, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstadt, 1980.
7Ed. MR Cathala, RM Spiazzi; Marietti, Taurini-Romae, 1971.
xList of abbreviations of Thomas Aquinas’works
Introduction
A The big question
The challenges that a world full of contingent events brings to the doctrine of
divine providence cannot be overstated. My goal in this volume is to address
these challenges, considering the relation between natural contingency and
divine providence from the perspective of Thomas Aquinas, a thirteenth-century
Christian philosopher, while actively engaging with recent philosophical and
theological literature on divine providential action. That is, instead of considering
those who deny the possibility of divine providence given the contingency of nat-
ural events, I will study proposals that offer the opposite approach, making use of
this natural contingency to offer models for understanding divine providential
action. In particular, I will consider what has been termed as the Divine Action
Project, which started at some point in the 1980s and lasted for about 25 years,
the offspring of which continues to spur today in numerous works on divine pro-
vidence and action.
Arguably, the main insight of this project was that contingency and indetermin-
ism in nature are of great value to the created order and that they are of significant
value to theological discourses as well. Consider, for example, what George Ellis
has to say about the existence of contingency and randomness in the universe:
It turns out that they [biological systems] take advantage of the storm of
randomness encountered at the molecular level –there is much evidence
that molecular machinery in biology is designed to use that randomness to
attain desired results. This is true also in terms of macro-levels of behavior,
and in particular, as regards how the brain functions. Randomness is har-
nessed through the process of adaptive selection, which allows higher levels
of order and meaning to emerge. It is then a virtue, not a vice.
1
There is an advantage, a benefit, for the existence of randomness and chance in
the universe, a benefit that, as I hope to explain in the following pages of this
volume, God puts to good use. Contingency and indeterminism, thus, do not
rule out the ever-intimate presence of the divine in creation; they rather point to
it, and to a certain extent require and demand God’s providence.
DOI: 10.4324/9781003173465-1
There are at least two strong convictions guiding the debate on divine provi-
dence today: first, the three great monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam) affirm that God is present in the universe and providentially active in it,
guiding it to its fulfilment. That is, God guides and directs the world caringly, and
does not stay away from it. God does not withdraw from the history of the world;
neither does God leave people without his help. Second, the natural world in which
we live, as described by modern science, is an orderly world, in which each event
appears to have a natural cause to it: everything in the created universe appears to
be caused, in one way or another, by something else in that same created uni-
verse. These two assertions, even if they serve as guiding principles to the
debate, appear to exclude each other. Either God is able to act directly in the
universe, or the scientific description of the world seems to leave no room for
Godtoact.Thescientific picture seems to present boundaries that God cannot
cross. These boundaries, though, are the creation of that very same God. The
idea of God sustaining nature and its regularities while miraculously interven-
ing, suspending, or ignoring those regularities looks, thus, close to a
contradiction.
2
As a first step to tackle this dilemma, most actors in the contemporary debate
accept a distinction between special and general divine providence, the latter
referring to God’s creating and sustaining of the universe in its being, while the
former referring to God’s direct interventions in nature that would help history
develop in the ways God wants. Special divine providence is a notion aiming at
explaining the claim according to which God not only guides history through
the autonomous activity of nature, but also introduces novelty in nature,
according to His plans.
The second step usually taken in the providential divine action debate is to find
within contemporary science places in which to locate God’s action. Following the
emergence of an indeterministic account of nature given by the development of
quantum mechanics in the early twentieth century, theologians explored the possi-
bility of an understanding of divine providential action through indeterministic
events. Many argue that such a possibility would rule out any divine intrusion
within the laws of nature, because the very laws of nature show that there are nat-
ural events that are open to several distinct outcomes. In such an image of nature,
God could choose which outcome to bring about, without disrupting any law.
This proposal, however, brings new difficulties in the understanding of
providential divine action. A more technical analysis of how God could act in,
for example, quantum events (were they to be undetermined, or without a
sufficient cause) shows that God should act as any natural cause, endangering
God’s transcendental status, putting a question mark on the purposefulness of
God’s actions. The root of these problems is, I will argue, the notion of
causality used in the debate, which, although many attempts have been made
to re-consider it, remains unexplained.
The argument I put forth in this volume, then, is simple in essence: the basic
idea is that there are some unexamined assumptions about causality, which lead
to embracing an ultimately inadequate solution and representation of God. The
2Introduction
concepts of causality, and of cause, used in the debate are, so I argue, deter-
ministic. Hence, my argument continues, God depends on the natural order to
act, leading to the conclusion that God acts as natural causes do. To counter
these problems, I propose revisiting Thomas Aquinas’doctrine of primary and
secondary causation and its relation to contingency and indeterminism in the
natural world.
There are, of course, many scholars who remark on Aquinas’significance
to philosophical and theological discussions today, and many would argue
that the study of theology or philosophy in Western culture cannot entirely
avoid his work. Arguably, Aquinas represents the summit of medieval
thought and has profoundly influenced thinkers of the modern and con-
temporary periods. Contemporary scholars of the stature of Alister
McGrath
3
and Keith Ward
4
count him among the thinkers who must be
consulted in any discussion about God.
There is also great awareness within the context of today’s debate on provi-
dential divine action that Aquinas’thought could lead to a solution of the big
question. Robert Russell, one of the leading scholars in the discussions, points
to this fact several times when considering alternative proposals to his own. For
example, in the third volume of the Divine Action Project, published in 1995,
Russell enumerates several current approaches to divine action, mentioning
Neo-Thomism among them, together with process theology, uniform action,
and personal agent models.
5
By 2008, Russell affirms that as a result of the
conversations two broad metaphysical systems were adopted by scholars parti-
cipating in the debates: process metaphysics and Neo-Thomistic metaphysics,
6
recommending further research on a detailed assessment of the relative merits
of the different proposals on divine action, mentioning, among others, the dis-
tinction between primary and secondary causality, two essential notions of
Thomas’account of causation. Finally, in his latest production in 2018, Russell
dedicates several pages to analysing Aquinas-inspired approaches hoping to find
bridges and connections between his proposal and those of Thomist philoso-
pher Michael Dodds, OP.
In fact, Michael Dodds is perhaps the better-known Thomist in the debate,
having published extensively, offering Thomistic perspectives on providence
and divine action in relation to the current debate, most prominently in his
2012 volume, Unlocking Divine Action.
7
Aquinas’influence can be easily per-
ceived in William Stoeger’s writings; Philip Clayton explicitly uses the classi-
cal formulation of causes, affirming the necessity of talking about the formal,
material, efficient, and final cause of God’sactionintheuniverse;
8
and Robert
Russell openly states that God’s creative action supplies the material and
formal causes in nature.
9
Sarah Lane Ritchie also spends much time in study-
ing Aquinas thought in the approaches of numerous contemporary Tho-
mists;
10
and finally, David Fergusson
11
as well as David S. Robinson and
Jennifer Wotochek
12
have recently remarked on the regained momentum in
recent literature of Thomist approaches and the resurgence of classical
accounts of ‘non-competitive’agencies.
Introduction 3
It is not rushed, then, to say that Aquinas is already installed in the con-
temporary debate. Robert Russell suggests that it is necessary to give more focused
attention to making Aquinas’metaphysics explicit, given that it is not clear to
what extent the metaphysical diversity in the debate has enhanced or hindered the
conversations from making further progress.
13
Stressing this idea, Stoeger warned,
back in 2008, that the concept of creatio ex nihilo had not been carefully and ade-
quately engaged in this debate, and that it should be addressed in later research.
14
His main reason was that this notion, essential for Aquinas, provides the funda-
mental basis for properly understanding both God’s universal creative action and
God’s special providential action, a point that I make in the fourth chapter of this
volume. Michael Dodds is so far one of the very few scholars to embark on the
project with an explicit Thomistic perspective, offering a thorough analysis on
how Aquinas’thought can be helpful for the debate, with the recent addition of
Mariusz Tabaczek’s work on emergence and divine action and Simon Maria
Kopf’s work on teleology and contingency in nature.
15
Contemporary scholarship on divine providence dealing with these matters is
currently booming within the current field of science and religion, and I hope my
project will open new ground for debate. Recent works include David Fergusson’s
The Providence of God: A Polyphonic Approach; Alexander Jensen’sDivine Pro-
vidence and Human Agency;KarlGiberson’s edited volume Abraham’sDice:
Chance and Providence in the Monotheistic Traditions; and Robert Russell and
Joshua Moritz’s edited volume God’s Providence and Randomness in Nature:
Scientific and Theological Perspectives.
16
Fergusson’svolumeoffers a historical
account of different approaches to the doctrine of providence, presenting in his
final chapter a theological discourse that sets his own dogmatics and practical
theology of providence. Jensen’s book argues for a theologically Thomistic
account of providence in an open discussion with process theology on the theme of
human freedom in relation to divine providence. Giberson’svolumeoffers an
orderly collection of essays on the different historical approaches to providence
and chance that emerged in the monotheistic traditions. Russell and Moritz’s
edited volume offers scientific and theological approaches to the issues of natural
randomness and divine providence working through that randomness.
In addition to these treatises on providence, there are several volumes framed
under the terms of ‘divine action’. For example, William J. Abraham’sfour-
volume work Divine Agency and Divine Action; Michael Dodds’Unlocking
Divine Action: Contemporary Science and Thomas Aquinas; Robert Russell and
Nancey Murphy’s edited volume Philosophy, Science and Divine Action;Sarah
Lane Ritchie’sDivine Action and the Human Mind;andJeffrey Koperski’s
Divine Action, Determinism, and the Laws of Nature.
17
Abraham’sworkisan
impressive four-volume project that explores the theological twentieth-century
debate on divine agency (Vol. I, 2017), its historical roots (Vol. II, 2018), offering
his own systematic theological account of divine action (Vol. III, 2019); and pre-
sents his views on God as an agent in nature (Vol. IV, 2021, is perhaps the most
relevant to my study, but was yet to be published while I was finishing writing
these pages). Dodds’volume is probably the most similar to mine, since it
4Introduction
explicitly engages with the current proposals for explaining divine action in light
of contemporary science, offering a Thomistic perspective on the matter. I take
Dodds’volume to be a most accomplished kick-offfor the regained momentum
in recent literature of Thomistic studies on divine providential action.
18
Russell
and Murphy’s edited volume includes chapters of several renowned scholars in
the science and religion field. Ritchie’svolumeoffers a wonderful panoramic
analysis of different approaches to divine action in the world especially through
the human mind, hoping to disengage herself from some other models that locate
God’s involvement in the world through the indeterminacies that creation offers.
Finally, Koperski’sworkoffers a neo-classical model of divine action, the basic
argument for which being that determinism is an add-on to the laws of nature,
and that these do not restrict the actions of personal agents in the world.
Sarah Lane Ritchie has seen a turn towards what she calls ‘theistic naturalisms’
in much of the latest literature on divine providential action, which in essence
seeks to ‘affirm a full commitment to the natural sciences’while emphasising ‘the
role of theology in defining the ontology of nature itself’.
19
She describes this
theological turn happening through Thomism, pneumatology, and panentheism.
My work fits, thus, within this ‘turn’, since I try, as I will explain in the follow-
ing pages, to move away from contemporary models of divine providential action
that place this action in the ‘causal gaps’of nature, suggesting a model in which
nature and God relate at every moment, for which every moment of creation is
the causal joint, to use Austin Farrer’s foundational expression.
My aims in this work are, perhaps, modest in comparison to many of these
volumes, though they are still ambitious in attempting to offer a sound model
for divine providential action following the teachings of Thomas Aquinas.
Analysing the ‘theological turn’in divine action models, Ritchie has valued
Thomistic approaches to providential divine action as ‘something of a gold
standard’, because these approaches emphasise the fact that ‘nature [is] always
in intimate connection to, and dependence on, God’and hence, ‘both God and
natural processes are fully responsible for all natural events’.
20
Aquinas is ada-
mant in this respect: ‘natural things do not produce their effects unless for the
divine power’.
21
This simple statement encloses all his metaphysics of provi-
dence: God is present with his power within every natural happening and every
natural process. Still, this simple statement also brings about rightful questions:
what does it mean to say that natural things produce their effects because of
divine power? How do we understand that natural things cause their effects
because they are created causes and as such receive their powers from God? Or
is it that God produces each natural effect without any input from natural
causes? Or is it both, God and the natural causes that produce, together, the
effect? Does God have to act so natural things can cause? Can God, in the end,
act in nature at all if natural things are acting?
I will attempt to answer these questions expanding on the following ideas. For
Aquinas, God causes creatures to exist in such a way that they are the real causes
of their own operations. Still, God is at work in every operation of nature.
Divine causality and creaturely causality, for Aquinas, function at fundamentally
Introduction 5
different levels. God’s causality is that of creation, while creature’s causation is
that of natural change. Thus, Aquinas understands that these two different causes
(God and creatures) differ radically: God is the complete cause of the whole
reality of whatever is and yet in the created world there is a rich array of real
secondary causes. Indeed, following his understanding of creation out of nothing,
Aquinas affirms the integrity and relative autonomy of the physical world and the
adequacy of the natural sciences to describe this world. Especially in his exposi-
tion of the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, Aquinas sought to affirm the radical and
continuous dependence of all things upon God as their cause and that this
dependence is fully compatible with the discovery of causes in nature. God’s
omnipotence, Aquinas explains, does not challenge the possibility of real caus-
ality for creatures, thus rejecting any notion of divine withdrawal from the world
so as to leave room for the actions of creatures. In fact, Aquinas does not think
that God merely allows or permits creatures to behave the way they do. More-
over, creation out of nothing does not mean only that God creates being and
allows secondary causes to provide the particular determinations of individual
beings. Creatures are what they are, precisely because God is constantly present
to them as the cause of their being and their actions. Thus, Aquinas affirms that
the same effect is not attributed to a natural cause and to divine power in
such a way that it is partly done by God, and partly by the natural efficient
cause; rather, it is wholly done by both, according to a different way, just
as the same effect is wholly attributed to the instrument and also wholly to
the principal agent.
22
Were God to withdraw, all that exists would cease to be. Hence, the autonomy
of nature is guaranteed by God’s creative continuous causality.
B Volume structure
A word on my use of words in the title might be required, in particular of the term
‘metaphysics’. Readers acquainted with Aquinas’philosophy and in particular
with how Thomism has framed Aquinas’thought in the centuries between him
and us, might be puzzled by my saying that I should use the term ‘metaphysics’for
referring to Aquinas’considerations on natural causes: these doctrines are tradi-
tionally termed under the label of ‘philosophy of nature’. Something similar might
happen with readers expecting a theological discourse on the doctrine of provi-
dence, which is not usually termed as a metaphysical doctrine. In a nutshell,
today’s treatises and discourses about causality tend to be labelled as metaphysical
discourses, and as such I simply adopt this trend. I find no need to attach myself to
a language that is no longer in use in wider academic circles, such as that of ‘phi-
losophy of nature’, when even Aquinas made little use of it.
23
In fact, the notion of
cause as such is for Aquinas a notion that lies at the boundaries between his phi-
losophy of nature and his metaphysics, and in this sense, I am being faithful to
Aquinas’thought. Regarding the notion of ‘providence’, I see it as a notion that
6Introduction
lies between metaphysics as Aquinas understood it, i.e., as the discipline seeking
the knowledge of the first cause –namely, God –and theology, i.e., the discipline
that attempts to gain knowledge of the God following divine Revelation. Hence, I
am only considering providence in the first sense, as a metaphysical notion. I thus
present in the pages to come a metaphysics of providence that is grounded in a
metaphysics of natural causation.
I begin my argument by seeking for criteria to assess providential divine
action models in what I like to call a historical dig or excavation. Thus, in the
first chapter, ‘Digging for criteria’, I present a brief metaphysical history of
divine providence, considering four different episodes in the history of Western
intellectual thought that offer models of divine providence. The episodes start in
medieval Islam and Christianity, passing through early modern Europe and the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, arriving to the current debate. This
historical preliminary study reaches four different criteria, or better desiderata,
that inform the debates and that, I argue, can serve to assess the contemporary
(and future) models of providential divine action and natural contingency. My
point is that these historical episodes, even if distant in time from each other, are
shaped by these metaphysical options or principles: 1) God’somnipotence;2)
God’s involvement in the workings of nature; 3) the autonomy of nature; and 4)
the success of natural reason and science. I show in this metaphysical history that
thinkers through these episodes struggled to put together these four desiderata in
their respective models of divine providence, having to juggle with them in their
respective models of divine providence, suggesting that Aquinas’model manages
to hold the four of them.
In the second chapter, ‘Science and providence today’, I present the fundamental
notions of the debate surrounding providence and science, such as general divine
action, special divine action, and explore the basic features of contingency, inde-
terminism, chance, and randomness. I address how these concepts are used to
argue for divine providence through the workings of the created indeterminate
order. To show why I think the debate is ill-formulated, I exemplify the main ideas
guiding it by focusing on Robert Russell’s model of quantum divine action, but
also referring to John Polkinghorne’s ideas on chaos theory and divine action and
Jeffrey Koperski’s considerations of the laws of nature in relation to God’sprovi-
dential action in the world. I will, thus, examine the philosophical and theological
assumptions on causality and God that inform current discussions on divine pro-
vidence, the major assumption being that the notion of causality is identified with
that of determinism, a move that ultimately implies understanding divine causality
as natural causality, locating God’s causation among created causes, a wholly
undesirable conclusion.
In the third chapter, ‘A metaphysics of natural contingency’, I start my main
argument bringing in Aquinas’metaphysical thought on nature in full display,
investigating how natural causality works for Aquinas and providing a new and
fresh assessment of his account of the classical four causes of the natural world:
material, formal, efficient, and final. This analysis will show that the essential
notion in the definition of cause is that of dependence. This definition allows
Introduction 7
Aquinas to speak of contingent causes (which can be scientifically described in
indeterministic or random terms) in the causing of their effects, a feature that is
tightly tied with the fact that natural efficient causes fail at times in their producing
of their effects. I suggest, then, understanding divine providence using this broader
notion of causality as that upon which something depends.
I continue with my deep dive into Aquinas’metaphysics in the fourth chapter,
‘A metaphysics of God’s providence’, in which I present how Aquinas sought to
affirm the radical and continuous dependence of all things upon God as their
cause. The chapter first focuses on Aquinas’doctrine of God as pure being, in
order to pave the way for his exposition of the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo,from
which his metaphysical doctrine of providence springs. Following Aquinas, I
argue that complete dependence of creatures upon God is fully compatible with
the discovery of real causes in nature. Thus, one can argue for a God who,
without disrupting the order of natural causes, governs providentially the devel-
opment of the universe acting in and through these created causes. The reader
will find that the explanations in these two chapters are heavily based on a
widespread reading of Aquinas’whole work, and not only on the loci classici of
both his summae. The benefit of this method will be a return to Aquinas, rather
than an exposition of an Aquinas-inspired Thomism, which is, as I argue by the
end of the volume, the root of many misconceptions regarding his thought.
In the final chapter, ‘Thomas Aquinas today’, I argue that Aquinas offers the
metaphysical principles for a solution to the questions raised by the current debate
on divine providential action. On the one hand, Aquinas’account of nature is not
totally and absolutely deterministic, allowing, for instance, for a re-interpretation
of Heisenberg’s understanding of quantum mechanics, which lies at the heart of
many models of divine providential action today. On the other hand, given Aqui-
nas’accountofGod’s causality of every event in nature, God can be said person-
ally to be the cause of the particular and individual ways in which creatures cause.
My concluding remarks will be dedicated to addressing some objections to
Aquinas’ideas today and to how recent work in science and religion has
engaged creatively with his thought. I hope to arrive at the conclusion that,
given Aquinas’understanding of natural and divine causality, a plausible
description of divine providential action in nature is possible, without it being
against natural causality.
Acknowledgements
Much of what is included in this volume has been in my mind for over a
decade, starting with a doctorate at the University of Oxford, for which I owe
my first token of gratitude to my two supervisors Peter Harrison and William
Carroll, both of whom encouraged me from the very early stages of my
research. A special thank you must also go to Andrew Pinsent and Alister
McGrath, who welcomed me at the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Reli-
gion after my doctorate for over seven years. Their continuous encouragement
and support cannot be overstated.
8Introduction
The pages that follow draw much on some of my previous published work:
‘Divine Action and Thomism: Why Thomas Aquinas’s Thought is Attractive
Today’Acta Philosophica 25:1 (2016), 65–83; ‘A Cause Among Causes. God
Acting in the Natural World’European Journal for the Philosophy of Religion 7:4
(2015), 99–114; ‘Providence, Contingency, and the Perfection of the Universe’Phi-
losophy, Theology and the Sciences 2:2 (2015), 137–157; ‘Revisiting Aquinas on
Providence and Rising to the Challenge of Divine Action in Nature’The Journal of
Religion 94:3 (2014), 277–291; ‘Great Minds Think (Almost) Alike. Thomas
Aquinas and Alvin Plantinga on Divine Action in Nature’Philosophia Reformata
79 (2014), 8–20; ‘Werner Heisenberg and Thomas Aquinas on Natural Inde-
terminism’New Blackfriars 94 (2013), 635–653; ‘John Polkinghorne on Divine
Action: A Coherent Theological Evolution’,Science and Christian Belief 24:1
(2012), 19–30; and ‘Thomas Aquinas Holds Fast: Objections to Aquinas within
Today’sDebateonDivineAction’The Heythrop Journal 54:4 (2011), 658–667.
The final write-up of this book was made possible by a grant from the John
Templeton Foundation (ID 61030) at the Philosophy Institute of Universidad
Austral (Argentina), where I worked along with skilled philosophers who sup-
ported me and endured along the process: Juan Francisco Franck, Claudia Vanney,
and Mariano Asla. Several scholars have throughout the years helped me clarify
and better my thoughts. An unjust and incomplete list must include, in no parti-
cular order, John H. Brooke, Alex Arnold, Michael Dodds, Robert Russell, Julia
and Andrew Meszaros, Simon Kopf, Tim Pawl, Michael and Emily Burdett,
Gonzalo Recio, Thomas Oord, Agustín Echavarría, Craig Boyd, Jeroen de Ridder,
Mark Harris, and Andrea Sangiacomo. Those who first introduced me to the study
of Aquinas’metaphysics in Argentina should also receive my gratitude: Oscar
Beltrán, Olga Larre, Héctor Delbosco, Juan Pablo Roldán, and the late Juan
Roberto Courrèges. Needless to say, the shortcomings in my arguments are only
due to my lack of skill, while most of the successes come from their advice.
Perhaps the most important expression of gratitude should go to Thomas
Aquinas himself, who reached the heights of divine metaphysics and continues
to illuminate us today, driving at least my thoughts to God. Finally, my most
particular thank you goes to my loving wife, Agustina, and our joyful and ever
hopping children, Felicitas and Joaquín, through whom I daily discover in my
life the tender care of God’s providence.
Notes
1Ellis, George, ‘Necessity, Purpose and Chance’, in Robert Russell and Joshua M.
Moritz (eds), God’s Providence and Randomness in Nature (West Conshohocken,
PA: Templeton Press, 2018), 21–67, 23.
2Wildman, Wesley J., ‘The Divine Action Project, 1988–2003’,Theology and Science
2:1 (2004), 31–75, 38.
3McGrath, Alister (ed.), Theology: The Basic Readings (Malden, MA and Oxford:
Blackwell, 2008), 31: ‘[The Summa Theologica, Thomas’work] is widely regarded as
the landmark in Christian Theology, and is one of the most widely used and widely
cited theological sources’.
Introduction 9
4Ward, Keith, The Big Questions in Science and Religion (West Conshohocken, PA:
Templeton Press, 2008), discusses his views on God, creation, divine causality, the
soul, etc, in contrast with those of Aquinas.
5Russell, Robert, ‘Introduction’, in Robert Russell, Nancey Murphy, and Arthur
Peacocke (eds), Chaos and Complexity: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action
(Vatican City and Berkeley, CA: Vatican Observatory –CTNS, 1995), 7.
6Russell, Robert, ‘Challenges and Progress in “Theology and Science”: An Overview of
the VO/CTNS Series’, in Robert John Russell, Nancey Murphy, and William R.
Stoeger (eds), Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action (Vatican City and Berkeley, CA:
Vatican Observatory –CTNS, 2008), 3–56, 20 and 36.
7Most prominently, Michael Dodds has published Unlocking Divine Action. Contemporary
Science and Thomas Aquinas (Washington DC: CUA Press, 2012).
8Clayton, Philip, ‘Natural Law and Divine Action: The Search for an Expanded
Theory of Causation’,Zygon 39:3 (2004), 615–636, 631.
9Russell, Robert, ‘Quantum Physics and the Theology of Non-Interventionist Objective
Divine Action’, in Philip Clayton (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science
(Oxford: OUP, 2006), 579–595, 586.
10 Ritchie, Sarah Lane, Divine Action and the Human Mind (Cambridge: CUP, 2019),
Chapter 7 in particular.
11 Fergusson, David, The Providence of God: A Polyphonic Approach (Cambridge:
CUP, 2018), 255.
12 Robinson, David and Jennifer Wotochek, ‘Kenotic Theologies and the Challenge of
the “Anthropocene”: From Deep Incarnation to Interspecies Encounter’,Studies in
Christian Ethics (2020), 1–14, 5.
13 Russell, ‘Challenges and Progress’, 23.
14 Stoeger, William, SJ, ‘Conceiving Divine Action in a Dynamic Universe’, in Robert
John Russell, Nancey Murphy, and William R. Stoeger (eds), Scientific Perspectives
on Divine Action. Twenty Years of Challenge and Progress (Vatican City and Ber-
keley, CA: Vatican Observatory –CTNS, 2008), 225–247, 226.
15 See Dodds, Unlocking Divine Action; Tabaczek, Mariusz, Divine Action and Emer-
gence: An Alternative to Panentheism (South Bend, IN: Notre Dame Press, 2021);
Kopf, Simon Maria, Divine Providence and Natural Contingency: New Perspectives
from Aquinas on the Divine Action Debate, DPhil Thesis, University of Oxford,
2019. Michael Heller also comments on how important it is to look at Aquinas. He
does it, however, in a rather condensed way compared with the amount of time he
offers to contemporary science. See his ‘Generalizations: from Quantum Mechanics
to God’, in Robert J. Russell, Philip Clayton, Kirk Wegter-McNelly, and John
Polkinghorne (eds), Quantum Mechanics. Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action
(Vatican City and Berkeley, CA: Vatican Observatory –CTNS, 2001), 191–210.
16 Fergusson, The Providence of God; Jensen, Alexander, Divine Providence and
Human Agency (Abingdon: Routledge, 2014); Giberson, Karl, Abraham’s Dice:
Chance and Providence in the Monotheistic Traditions (Oxford: OUP, 2016); and
Russell and Moritz, God’s Providence.
17 Abraham, William J., Divine Agency and Divine Action (Oxford: OUP, 2017–21, in
four volumes); Dodds, Unlocking Divine Action; Russell, Robert and Nancey
Murphy, Philosophy, Science and Divine Action (Leiden: Brill, 2009); Ritchie, Sarah
Lane, Divine Action and the Human Mind; and Koperski, Jeffrey, Divine Action,
Determinism, and the Laws of Nature (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020).
18 See Fergusson, The Providence of God, 225.
19 Ritchie, Sarah Lane, ‘Dancing Around the Causal Joint: Challenging the Theological
Turn in Divine Action Theories’,Zygon 52:2 (2017), 361–379, 367.
20 Ritchie, Divine Action, 344.
21 SCG III, c. 70.
22 SCG III, c. 70.
10 Introduction
23 Aquinas did make use of the term ‘natural philosophy’. Still, a simple search in the
Corpus Thomisticum for the terms ‘philosoph* naturae’gives no relevant result.
Only when one searches for ‘philosoph* natural*’one gets results referring to
something similar to what contemporary Thomists term ‘philosophy of nature’.
Aquinas uses this term about 40 times, less than half the times he uses the term
‘metaphysics’in all his works.
Introduction 11
References
Abraham, William J., Divine Agency and Divine Action (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2017–2021, in four volumes).
Altaie, Basil, ‘The Understanding of Creation in Islamic Thought’, in Neil Spurway (ed.), Creation
and the Abrahamic Faiths (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008), 81–90.
Alusi, Husam Muhyi al-Din, The Problem of Creation in Islamic Thought, Qur’an, Hadîth,
Commentaries, and Kalâm (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965).
Ansarian, Tahameh and Nazarnejad, Narges, ‘An Investigation into Nancey Murphy’s View on
Divine Action in the World’, Jostarha-Ye Falsafe-Ye Din (Philosophy of Religion Studies) 6:1
(2017), 65–88.
Arenzano, Innocenzo De, ‘Necessità e Contingenza nell’Aggire della Natura Secondo San
Tommaso’, Divus Thomas 64 (1961), 28–69.
Austriaco, Nicanor, OP, ‘In Defense of Double Agency in Evolution: A Response to Five Modern
Critics’, Angelicum 80:4 (2003), 947–966.
Baldner, Steven E. and Carroll, William E. (trans.), Aquinas on Creation (Toronto: Pontifical
Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1997).
Beltrán, Oscar H., ‘La Doctrina de la Contingencia en la Naturaleza según los Comentarios del
Card. Cayetano y S. Ferrara’, Studium 11 (2003), 41–75.
Bernard, Claude, Introduction à l’Etude de la Médicine Expérimentable (Paris: J.B. Baillière et
Fils, 1865).
Berti, Enrico, ‘
El “Tomismo Analítico” y el Debate Sobre el Esse ipsum
’, lecture given at the
Philosophy Faculty of the Universidad Católica Argentina, Buenos Aires, 7 October, 2008.
Retrieved from uca.edu.ar/uca/common/grupo17/files/tomismo_esp_dr_berti.pdf.
Brecha, Robert J., ‘Schrödinger’s Cat and Divine Action: Some Comments on the Use of
Quantum Uncertainty to Allow for God’s Action in the World’, Zygon 37:4 (2002), 909–924.
Brock, Stephen L., ‘Causality and Necessity in Thomas Aquinas’, Quaestio 2 (2002), 217–240.
Brock, Stephen L., ‘On Whether Aquinas’
Ipsum Esse
is Platonism’, The Review of
Metaphysics, 60:2 (2006), 269–303.
Brock, Stephen L., ‘Harmonizing Plato and Aristotle on
Esse
: Thomas Aquinas and the
De
hebdomadibus
’, Nova et Vetera 5:3 (2007), 465–493.
Brower, Jeffrey E., Aquinas’s Ontology of the Material World (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2014).
Brunner, Fernand, Platonisme et Aristotélisme: La Critique d’Ibn Gabirol par Saint Thomas
d’Aquin (Louvain: Presses Universitaires de Louvain, 1965).
Bultmann, Rudolf, ‘Bultmann Replies to his Critics’, in Hans Werner Bartsch (ed.) and Reginald
H. Fuller (trans.), Kerygma and Myth: A Theological Debate (London: SPCK, 1960), 191–211.
Burrell, David, Analogy and Philosophical Language (New Haven, CT and London: Yale
University Press, 1973).
Burrell, David, Aquinas. God and Action (Scranton, PA and London: University of Scranton
Press, 2008).
Burrell, David, Knowing the Unknowable God (South Bend, IN: Notre Dame Press, 1986).
Carroll, William E., ‘Creation and the Foundations of Evolution’, Angelicum 87 (2010), 45–60.
Carroll, William E., ‘Divine Agency, Contemporary Physics, and the Autonomy of Nature’, The
Heytrop Journal 49 (2008), 582–602.
Carroll, William E., La Creación y las Ciencias Naturales. Actualidad de Santo Tomás de
Aquino (Santiago de Chile: Universidad Católica de Chile, 2003).
Clarke, Samuel, A Discourse Concerning the Unchangeable Obligations of Natural Religion,
and the Truth and Certainty of Christian Revelation (London: W. Botham St. Paul’s Church-
Yard, 1705).
Clarke, W. Norris, Explorations in Metaphysics. Being, God, Person (South Bend, IN: Notre
Dame Press, 1994).
Clarke, W. Norris, The Philosophical Approach to God, 2nd edn (New York: Fordham University
Press, 2007).
Clayton, Philip, ‘Emergence from Physics to Theology: Toward a Panoramic View’, Zygon 41:3
(2006), 675–688.
Clayton, Philip, ‘Natural Law and Divine Action: The Search for an Expanded Theory of
Causation’, Zygon 39:3 (2004), 615–636.
Clayton, Philip, God and Contemporary Science (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997).
Clayton, Philip, ‘Wildman’s Kantian Skepticism: A Rubicon for the Divine Action Debate’,
Theology and Science 2:2 (2004), 186–189.
Coakley, Sarah, ‘Providence and the Evolutionary Phenomenon of “Cooperation”: A Systematic
Proposal’, in F. Aran Murphy and P.G. Ziegler, The Providence of God: Deus Habet Consilium
(Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2009), 181–195.
Connell, Richard J., Substance and Modern Science (Saint Paul, MN: Centre for Thomistic
Studies, 1988).
Connell, Richard J., Nature’s Causes (New York: P. Lang, 1995).
Crombie, Alistair, ‘The Significance of Medieval Discussions of Scientific Method for the
Scientific Revolution’, in Marshall Clagget (ed.), Critical Problems in the History of Science
(Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1959), 79–101.
Darvish Aghajani, Javad and Hassan Hosseini, Seyed, ‘Facing the Problem of the Divine Action
in Nature: The Superiority of Emergentism over the Thomistic and Quantum Perspectives’,
Journal of Philosophy of Religion Research (Nameh-I- Hikmat) (2020), 1–26.
Davidson, Herbert, Proofs for Eternity, Creation and the Existence of God in Medieval Islamic
and Jewish Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987).
Davies, Brian, Thomas Aquinas on God and Evil (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
Descartes, René, Oeuvres de Descartes, Edited by C. Adam and P. Tannery (Paris: Léopold
Cerf, 1897), Vol. 1.
Descartes, René, Oeuvres de Descartes, Edited by C. Adam and P. Tannery (Paris: Léopold
Cerf, 1899), Vol. 3.
Dilley, Frank, ‘Does “The God Who Acts” Really Act?’, Anglican Theological Review 47:1
(1965), 66–80.
Dirac, Paul, The Principles of Quantum Mechanics (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958).
Dodds, Michael J., OP, ‘
The Doctrine of Causality in Aquinas and The Book of Causes: One
Key to Understanding the Nature of Divine Action
’, lecture given at the Summer Thomistic
Institute, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, July 14–21, 2000.
Dodds, Michael J., OP, ‘Science, Causality and Divine Action: Classical Principles for
Contemporary Challenges’, CTNS Bulletin 21:1 (2001), 3–12.
Dodds, Michael J., OP, Unlocking Divine Action. Contemporary Science and Thomas Aquinas
(Washington DC: CUA Press, 2012).
Dodds, Michael J., OP, ‘
Top Down, Bottom Up or Inside Out? Retrieving Aristotelian Causality
in Contemporary Science
’, lecture given at the Summer Thomistic Institute, University of Notre
Dame, Indiana, 25 July, 1997.
Echavarría, Agustín, ‘Aquinas on Divine Impeccability, Omnipotence, and Free Will’, Religious
Studies 56 (2020), 256–273.
Echavarría, Agustín, ‘Thomas Aquinas and the Modern and Contemporary Debate on Evil’, New
Blackfriars 95 (2013), 733–754.
Ejtehadian, Hossein, ‘Integrating Bohmian and Sadra’s Metaphysic to Explain Divine Action’,
Jostarha-Ye Falsafe-Ye Din (Philosophy of Religion Studies) 8:1 (2019), 63–81.
Ejtehadian, Hossein and Rasool Rasoolipoor, ‘Divine Action and Bohmian Interpretation of
Quantum Mechanics’, Jostarha-Ye Falsafe-Ye Din (Philosophy of Religion Studies) 7:2 (2018),
55–80.
Ellis, George FR, ‘Ordinary and Extraordinary Divine Action: The Nexus of Interaction’, in
Robert Russell, Nancey Murphy, and Arthur Peacocke (eds), Chaos and Complexity. Scientific
Perspectives on Divine Action (Vatican City and Berkeley, CA: Vatican Observatory – CTNS,
1995), 359–395.
Ellis, George FR, ‘Quantum Theory and the Macroscopic World’, in Robert J. Russell, Philip
Clayton, Kirk Wegter-McNelly, and John Polkinghorne (eds), Quantum Mechanics. Scientific
Perspectives on Divine Action (Vatican City and Berkeley, CA: Vatican Observatory – CTNS),
259–291.
Ellis, George FR, ‘Necessity, Purpose and Chance’, in Robert Russell and Joshua M. Moritz
(eds), God’s Providence and Randomness in Nature (West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton
Press, 2018), 21–67.
Fabro, Cornelio, Participation et Causalité Selon S. Thomas D’Aquin (Louvain: Presses
Universitaires de Louvain, 1961).
Farrer, Austin, Faith and Speculation. An Essay in Philosophical Theology (London: Adam &
Charles Black, 1967).
Fergusson, David, The Providence of God: A Polyphonic Approach (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2018).
Frank, Richard, ‘Remarks on the Early Development of the Kalam’, in Dimitri Gutas (ed.),
Philosophy, Theology and Mysticism in Medieval Islam (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), 315–329.
Frank, Richard, ‘The Structure of Created Causality According to al-Ash’ari’, in Dimitri Gutas
(ed.), Early Islamic Theology: The Mu’tazilites and al-Ash’ari (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), 13–75.
Freddoso, Alfred, ‘God’s General Concurrence with Secondary Causes: Pitfalls and Prospects’,
American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 68 (1994), 131–156.
Geiger, Louis-Bertrand, La Participation dans la Philosophie de S. Thomas d’Aquin (Paris: J.
Vrin, 1942).
Giberson, Karl, Abraham’s Dice: Chance and Providence in the Monotheistic Traditions (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2016).
Gillispie, Charles C., Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749–1827. A Life in Exact Science (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1997).
Goblot, Edmond, ‘La Finalité en Biologie’, Revue Philosophique de la France et de l’Etranger 56
(1903), 366–381.
Göcke, Benedikt P., ‘The Many Problems of Special Divine Action’, European Journal for
Philosophy of Religion 7:4 (2015), 23–36.
Halvorson, Hans, ‘Plantinga on Providence and Physics’, European Journal for Philosophy of
Religion 5:3 (2013), 19–30.
Harrison, Peter, ‘The Development of the Concept of Law of Nature’, in Fraser Watts (ed.),
Creation: Law and Probability (Ashgate: Aldershot, 2008), 13–35.
Harrison, Peter, The Territories of Science and Religion (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago
Press, 2015).
Hattab, Helen, ‘Early Modern Roots of the Philosophical Concept of a Law of Nature’, in Walter
Ott and Lydia Patton (eds), Laws of Nature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 18–41.
Heisenberg, Werner, Physics and Philosophy (New York: Prometheus Books, 1958).
Heisenberg, Werner, The Physicist’s Conception of Nature (London: Hutchinson, 1958).
Heisenberg, Werner, Tradition in der Wissenschaft, Reden und Aufsätze (Munich: R. Piper,
1977).
Heisenberg, Werner, ‘
Was ist ein Elementarteilchen?
’, lecture presented at the Tagung der
Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft, 5 March 1975. Reproduced in Die
Naturwissenschaften 63 (1976), 1–7.
Heller, Michael, ‘Generalizations: from Quantum Mechanics to God’, in Robert J. Russell, Philip
Clayton, Kirk Wegter-McNelly, and John Polkinghorne (eds), Quantum Mechanics. Scientific
Perspectives on Divine Action (Vatican City and Berkeley, CA: Vatican Observatory – CTNS,
2001), 191–210.
Henry, John, ‘Metaphysics and the Origins of Modern Science’, Early Science and Medicine 9:2
(2004), 73–114.
Hodgson, Peter E., ‘God’s Action in the World: The Relevance of Quantum Mechanics’, Zygon
35:3 (2000), 505–516.
Hoffmann, Tobias and Cyrille Michon, ‘Aquinas on Free Will and Intellectual Determinism’,
Philosophers’ Imprint 17:10 (2017).
Jeffreys, Derek, ‘The Soul is Alive and Well: Non-Reductive Physicalism and Emergent Mental
Properties’, Theology and Science 2:2 (2004), 205–225.
Jensen, Alexander, Divine Providence and Human Agency (Abingdon: Routledge, 2014).
Kenny, Anthony, Aquinas on Being (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
Koninck, Charles de, ‘Réflexions sur le problème de l’indéterminisme’, Revue Thomiste 43:23
(1937), 227–252 and 393–409.
Koperski, Jeffrey, Divine Action, Determinism, and the Laws of Nature (Abingdon: Routledge,
2020).
Kopf, Simon Maria, Divine Providence and Natural Contingency: New Perspectives from
Aquinas on the Divine Action Debate, DPhil Thesis, Oxford, 2019.
Laplace, Pierre-Simon, Essai Philosophique sur les Probabilités (Paris: MME VE Courcier,
1814).
Margenau, Henry, Thomas and the Physics of 1958: A Confrontation, The Aquinas Lecture
(Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1958).
Maritain, Jacques, God and the Permission of Evil (Milwaukee, WI: The Bruce Publishing
Company, 1966).
McGrath, Alister, ‘Hesitations about Special Divine Action: Reflections on Some Scientific,
Cultural and Theological Concerns’, European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 7:4 (2015),
3–22.
McGrath, Alister (ed.), Theology: The Basic Readings (Malden, MA and Oxford: Blackwell,
2008).
Meinel, Christoph, ‘Seventeenth-Century Atomism: Theory, Epistemology and the Insufficiency
of Experiment’, Isis 79 (1988), 68–103.
Milton, John R., ‘Laws of Nature’, in Daniel Garber and Michael Ayers (eds), The Cambridge
History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy, Vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1998), 680–701.
Milton, John R., ‘The Origin and Development of the Concept of the “Laws of Nature”’, Archives
Européennes de Sociologie 22 (1981), 173–195.
Murphy, Nancey, ‘Divine Action in the Natural Order’, in Robert Russell, Nancey Murphy, and
Arthur Peacocke (eds), Chaos and Complexity. Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action
(Vatican City and Berkeley, CA: Vatican Observatory – CTNS, 1995), 325–357.
Murphy, Nancey and Ellis, George F.R., On the Moral Nature of the Universe. Theology,
Cosmology, and Ethics (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1996).
Needham, Joseph, ‘Human Laws and Laws of Nature in China and the West’, Journal of the
History of Ideas 12:1 and 2 (1951), 3–30 and 194–230.
Oakley, Francis, ‘Christian Theology and the Newtonian Science: The Rise of the Concept of
Law of Nature’, Church History 30 (1961), 433–457.
Padget, Alan G., ‘The Roots of the Western Concept of the “Laws of Nature”: From the Greeks
to Newton’, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 55:4 (2003), 212–221.
Pasnau, Robert, ‘Form, Substance, and Mechanism’, The Philosophical Review 13:1 (2004),
31–88.
Peacocke, Arthur, Theology for a Scientific Age (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1993).
Penrose, Roger, The Road to Reality (London: Jonathan Cape).
Plantinga, Alvin, ‘What is “Intervention”?’, Theology and Science 6:4 (2008), 369–401.
Poincaré, Henri, Dernières Pensées (Paris: Ernest Flammarion, 1913).
Poincaré, Henri, Science et Méthode (Paris: Ernest Flammarion, 1909).
Polkinghorne, John, Belief in God in an Age of Science (New Haven, CT and London: Yale
University Press, 1998).
Polkinghorne, John, ‘Christianity and Science’, in Philip Clayton and Zachary R. Simpson (eds),
The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 57–70.
Polkinghorne, John, Faith, Science, and Understanding (New Haven, CT and London: Yale
University Press, 2000).
Polkinghorne, John, ‘Kenotic Creation and Divine Action’, in John Polkinghorne (ed.), The Work
of Love (London: SPCK, 2001).
Polkinghorne, John, ‘The Metaphysics of Divine Action’, in Robert Russell, Nancey Murphy, and
Arthur Peacocke (eds), Chaos and Complexity. Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action
(Vatican City and Berkeley, CA: Vatican Observatory – CTNS, 1995), 147–156.
Polkinghorne, John, The Polkinghorne Reader: Science, Faith and the Search for Meaning,
edited by Thomas Oord (London: SPCK, 2010).
Polkinghorne, John, Science and Christian Belief (London: SPCK, 1997).
Polkinghorne, John, Science and Theology, an Introduction (London: SPCK, 1998).
Polkinghorne, John, Serious Talk (London: SCM Press, 1995).
Ritchie, Sarah Lane, ‘Dancing Around the Causal Joint: Challenging the Theological Turn in
Divine Action Theories’, Zygon 52:2 (2017), 361–379.
Ritchie, Sarah Lane, Divine Action and the Human Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2019).
Robinson, David S. and Jennifer Wotochek, ‘Kenotic Theologies and the Challenge of the
“Anthropocene”: From Deep Incarnation to Interspecies Encounter’, Studies in Christian Ethics
(2020), 1–14.
Roux, Sophie, ‘Les Lois de la Nature au XVIIe Siècle: Le Problème Terminologique’, Revue de
Synthèse 2:4 (2001), 531–576.
Ruby, Jane E., ‘The Origins of Scientific “Law”’, Journal of the History of Ideas 47 (1986),
341–359.
Russell, Robert John, ‘An Appreciative Response to Niels Henrik Gregersen’s JKR Research
Conference Lecture’, Theology and Science 4:2 (2006), 129–135.
Russell, Robert John, ‘Challenges and Progress in “Theology and Science”: An Overview of the
VO/CTNS Series’, in Robert John Russell, Nancey Murphy, and William R. Stoeger (eds),
Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action (Vatican City and Berkeley, CA: Vatican Observatory –
CTNS, 2008), 3–56.
Russell, Robert John, Cosmology. From Alpha to Omega (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press,
2008).
Russell, Robert John, ‘Introduction’, in Robert Russell, Nancey Murphy, and Arthur Peacocke
(eds), Chaos and Complexity: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action (Vatican City and
Berkeley, CA: Vatican Observatory – CTNS, 1995).
Russell, Robert John, ‘Divine Action and Quantum Mechanics: A Fresh Assessment’, in Robert
J. Russell, Philip Clayton, Kirk Wegter-McNelly, and John Polkinghorne (eds), Quantum
Mechanics. Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action (Vatican City and Berkeley, CA: Vatican
Observatory – CTNS, 2001), 293–328.
Russell, Robert John, ‘Does “The God Who Acts” Really Act?’ Theology Today 54:1 (1997),
43–65.
Russell, Robert John, ‘Five Key Topics on the Frontier of Theology and Science Today’, Dialog:
A Journal of Theology 46:3 (2007), 199–207.
Russell, Robert John, ‘Quantum Physics in Philosophical and Theological Perspective’, in R. J.
Russell, W. R. Stoeger, and G. V. Coyne (eds), Physics, Philosophy and Theology. A Common
Quest for Understanding (Vatican City: Vatican Observatory, 1988), 343–374.
Russell, Robert John, ‘Quantum Physics and the Theology of Non-Interventionist Objective
Divine Action’, in Philip Clayton (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2006), 579–595.
Russell, Robert John, ‘Special Providence and Genetic Mutation: A New Defense of Theistic
Evolution’, in Robert J. Russell, William R. Stoeger, and Francisco Joseé Ayala (eds),
Evolutionary and Molecular Biology. Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action (Vatican City and
Berkeley, CA: Vatican Observatory – CTNS, 1998), 191–223.
Russell, Robert John, ‘What We’ve Learned from Quantum Mechanics about Non-
interventionist Objective Divine Action in Nature – And What are its Remaining Challenges?’, in
Robert Russell and Joshua M. Moritz (eds), God’s Providence and Randomness in Nature
(West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Press, 2018), 133–171.
Russell, Robert John and Joshua Moritz God’s Providence and Randomness in Nature:
Scientific and Theological Perspectives (West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Press, 2019).
Russell, Robert John and Nancey Murphy, Philosophy, Science and Divine Action (Leiden: Brill,
2009).
Sangiacomo, Andrea, ‘Divine Action and God’s Immutability: A Historical Case Study on How to
Resist Occasionalism’, European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 7:4 (2015), 115–135.
Saunders, Nicholas, Divine Action and Modern Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2002).
Saunders, Nicholas, ‘Does God Cheat at Dice? Divine Action and Quantum Possibilities’, Zygon
35:3 (2000), 517–544.
Selvaggi, Filippo, Causalità e Indeterminismo, La Problematica Moderna alla Luce della
Filosofia Aristotelico-Tomista (Rome: Editrice Università Gregoriana, 1964).
Silva, Ignacio, ‘El Advenimiento de la Noción de “Leyes de la Naturaleza” a Principios del Siglo
XVII. Análisis de Algunas Narrativas Históricas’, in Agustín Echavarría and Juan F. Franck
(eds), La Causalidad en la Filosofía Moderna. De Suárez and Kant Precrítico (Pamplona:
Cuadernos de Anuario Filosofico, 2012), 29–40.
Silva, Ignacio, ‘A Cause Among Causes? God Acting in the Natural World’, European Journal
for Philosophy of Religion 7:4 (2015), 99–114.
Silva, Ignacio, ‘Divine Providence and Natural Contingency’, in Ignacio Silva and Simon Kopf
(eds), Divine and Human Providence: Philosophical, Psychological and Theological Approaches
(Abingdon: Routledge, 2020), 59–74.
Silva, Ignacio, ‘John Polkinghorne on Divine Action: A Coherent Theological Evolution’, Science
and Christian Belief 24:1 (2012), 19–30.
Silva, Ignacio, ‘Providence, Contingency and the Perfection of the Cosmos’, Philosophy,
Theology and the Sciences 2:2 (2015), 137–157.
Silva, Ignacio, ‘Revisiting Aquinas on Providence and Rising to the Challenge of Divine Action in
Nature’, The Journal of Religion 94:3 (2014), 277–291.
Silva, Ignacio, ‘Thomas Aquinas Holds Fast: Objections to Aquinas within Today’s Debate on
Divine Action’, The Heythrop Journal 54:4 (2013), 658–667.
Silva, Ignacio, ‘Werner Heisenberg and Thomas Aquinas on Natural Indeterminism’, New
Blackfriars 94 (2013), 635–653.
Smedes, Taede A., Chaos, Complexity, and God: Divine Action and Scientism (Leuven, Paris,
and Dudley, MA: Peeters, 2004).
Sollereder, Bethany, ‘A Modest Objection: Neo-Thomism and God as a Cause Among Causes’,
Theology and Science 13:3 (2015), 345–353.
Stoeger, William, SJ, ‘The Big Bang, Quantum Cosmology and
Creatio ex Nihilo
’, in David
Burrell, B.C. Cogliati, J.M. Soskice, and W.R. Stoeger (eds), Creation and the God of Abraham
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 152–175.
Stoeger, William, SJ, ‘Conceiving Divine Action in a Dynamic Universe’, in Robert John Russell,
Nancey Murphy, and William R. Stoeger (eds), Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action. Twenty
Years of Challenge and Progress (Vatican City and Berkeley, CA: Vatican Observatory – CTNS,
2008), 225–247.
Stoeger, William, SJ, ‘Describing God’s Action in the World in Light of Scientific Knowledge of
Reality’, in Robert Russell, Nancey Murphy, and Arthur Peacocke (eds), Chaos and Complexity.
Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action (Vatican City and Berkeley, CA: Vatican Observatory –
CTNS, 1995), 239–261, 253.
Stump, Eleonore, ‘Aquinas’s Account of Freedom: Intellect and Will’, The Monist 80:4 (1997),
576–597.
Tabaczek, Mariusz, OP, Divine Action and Emergence: An Alternative to Panentheism (South
Bend, IN: Notre Dame Press, 2021).
Tanner, Kathryn, God and Creation in Christian Theology (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988).
Torrance, Thomas Forsyth, Space, Time and Incarnation (London: Oxford University Press,
1969).
Tracy, Thomas, ‘Creation, Providence, and Quantum Chance’, in Robert J. Russell, Philip
Clayton, Kirk Wegter-McNelly, and John Polkinghorne (eds), Quantum Mechanics. Scientific
Perspectives on Divine Action (Vatican City and Berkeley, CA: Vatican Observatory – CTNS,
2001), 235–258.
Tracy, Thomas, ‘Divine Action and Quantum Theory’, Zygon 35:4 (2000), 891–900.
Tracy, Thomas, ‘Particular Providence and the God of the Gaps’, in Robert Russell, Nancey
Murphy, and Arthur Peacocke (eds), Chaos and Complexity. Scientific Perspectives on Divine
Action (Vatican City and Berkeley, CA: Vatican Observatory – CTNS, 1995), 289–324.
Tracy, Thomas, ‘Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action? Mapping the Options’, Theology and
Science 2:2 (2004), 196–201.
Tracy, Thomas, ‘Scientific Vetoes and the Hands-Off God: Can We Say that God Acts in
History?’, Theology and Science 10:1 (2012), 55–80.
Tracy, Thomas, ‘Special Divine Action and the Laws of Nature’, in Robert John Russell, Nancey
Murphy, and William R. Stoeger (eds), Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action (Vatican City
and Berkeley, CA: Vatican Observatory – CTNS, 2008), 249–283.
Velde, Rudi te, Aquinas on God: The ‘Divine Science’ of the Summa Theologiae (Aldershot:
Ashgate, 2006).
Velde, Rudi te, Participation and Substantiality in Thomas Aquinas (Leiden: Brill, 1995).
Wallace, William, The Modelling of Nature. Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Nature in
Synthesis (Washington DC: CUA Press, 1996).
Walzer, R., ‘Early Islamic Philosophers’, in A.H. Armstrong (ed.), The Cambridge History of Late
Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970).
Ward, Keith, Divine Action (West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Foundation Press, 2007).
Ward, Keith, The Big Questions in Science and Religion (West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton
Press, 2008).
Weisheipl, James, OP, Friar Thomas D’Aquino. His Life, Thought, and Works (Washington DC:
CUA Press, 1983).
Wildman, Wesley J., ‘The Divine Action Project, 1988–2003’, Theology and Science 2:1 (2004),
31–75.
Wiles, Maurice F., God’s Action in the World (London: SCM Press, 1986).
Wippel, John F., Metaphysical Themes in Thomas Aquinas II (Washington DC: CUA Press,
2007).
Wippel, John F., The Metaphysical Thought of Thomas Aquinas. From Finite Being to
Uncreated Being (Washington DC: CUA Press, 2000).
Wolfson, H., The Philosophy of the Kalām (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976).
Zare, Roozbeh, ‘Divine Action in Nature; Describing and Analyzing John Polkinghorne’s View
Point’, Jostarha-Ye Falsafe-Ye Din (Philosophy of Religion Studies) 6:2 (2018), 25–47.
Zilsel, Edgar, ‘The Genesis of the Concept of Physical Law’, The Philosophical Review 51:3
(1942), 245–279.