Introduction

Abstract

This introduction forms the bridge between the first and second volumes. The author points us back to his argument in Volume One that a central mistake in debates about divine agency and divine action is that one must use a general concept of divine action to understand the particular network of divine actions in creation and redemption that are at the core of the Christian faith. Even if one finds necessary and sufficient conditions for a concept of divine action, that concept will not inform us in any meaningful way about what God has actually done on our behalf. The author proposes that a careful, critical investigation of the Christian tradition will best supplement the intellectual malaise among Anglophone analytic philosophy on divine action. By careful attention to specific divine actions in the Christian tradition, one will find fresh ways of thinking about divine action in the contemporary debate.