Beyond Causation: A Contemporary Theology of Concursus

Abstract

Introduction: The Theological Dilemma of Concursus This article continues a discussion initiated by Edgar Towne, 2 Vaughn McTernan,3 and others, concerning divine-human interactivity. Both Towne and McTernan expressed concern about the overemphasis of the God-world dichotomy in traditional theology and thus proposed alternative conceptions of divine action, human interaction, and human interpretation of such interaction. In this article, contemporary theologians such as Wiles, Farrer, and Brummer are consulted and integrated with contemporary religion-science dialogue, including the work of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences and the Vatican Observatory project. Moreover, contemporary investigations into divine action are synthesized and categories, such as the distinction between retrospection and prospection as conceived by Brummer and Conradie, are explored as a general framework for grouping theological perspectives on concursus. In this way, theological persuasions can be broadly identified as either establishing a formula by which God is said to act in the future or recognizing ways in which the action of God can be identified in the past, in particular, in cooperation with the actions of human beings. In philosophical theology, the relationship between God and human beings has been historically referred to as concursus: the concurrence, or cooperation, of more than one agent to cause a particular effect. In theological terms, concursus is the cooperation of God and humanity as the causal forces