Introduction

Abstract

Abstract In recent theological scholarship, it has become common to conceive of God’s providence in action terms. A telling example is the so-called divine action debate, which is largely based on two principles: (i) providence is best conceptualised in terms of divine action; and (ii) divine action is best modelled on human action. The introduction first indicates that due to principle (ii), the main challenge for this action-based approach has been to find room for God to act in nature, which appears to be fully accounted for by natural causes. More importantly, while problems concerning principle (ii), namely the modelling of divine action on human action, have not gone unnoticed in recent years, principle (i), the exposition of divine providence in terms of divine action, has gained relatively little scholarly attention. The introduction thus outlines how this book challenges the more fundamental assumption that the concept of action best conceptualises divine providence, and advocates a reframing of the doctrine of providence and a notion of providence modelled on the virtue of prudence rather than human action. To this end, this chapter introduces the notion of divine providence as well as two historically relevant approaches to the doctrine of providence that function as central categories for the book’s analysis: action-based, or ‘actionistic’, and prudence-based, or ‘prudential-ordinative’, providence. The chapter also gives a quick overview of the divine action debate, its current state, and the nature of the contribution this book seeks to make. The introduction concludes with a brief chapter overview.