Predestination: Biblical and Theological Paths PDF
Preview Predestination: Biblical and Theological Paths
PREDESTINATION This page intentionally left blank Predestination Biblical and Theological Paths MATTHEW LEVERING 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork #MatthewLevering2011 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2011 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby MPGBooksGroup,BodminandKing’sLynn ISBN 978–0–19–960452–4 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 The truth you seek to fathom lies so deep in the abyss of the eternal law, it is cut off from every creature’s sight. And tellthemortalworldwhenyoureturnwhatItoldyou,sothatno manpresumetotrytoreachagoalashighasthis. DanteAlighieri,TheDivineComedy Mysticism keeps men sane. As long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity. The ordinary man has always been sane because the ordinary man has always been a mystic....If he saw two truths that seemed to contradict each other, hewould takethe two truths and the contradiction along with them. His spiritual sight is stereoscopic,likehisphysicalsight:heseestwodifferentpictures atonceandyetseesallthebetterforthat. G.K.Chesterton,Orthodoxy This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 1. TheBiblicalRootsoftheDoctrineofPredestination 13 2. ThePatristicPeriod:OutliningtheProblem 36 3. TheMedievalPeriod:SeekingaBalance 68 4. TheReformationandEarlyModernPeriod:CausalChains 98 5. TheTwentiethCentury:God’sAbsoluteInnocence 135 6. TwoAffirmations 177 WorksCited 202 Index 225 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgements FirstthankstoFrancescaAranMurphyforinvitingmetoaconference onprovidenceatAberdeen.Theconferenceservedastheimpetusfor thepresentbook,especiallythroughconversationswithNicholasHealy IIIandDavidHart.StevenLongandThomasJosephWhite,OP,taught me much in conversation about this topic. In Spring 2007 Raymond Hain, now assistant professor of philosophy at Xavier University and then a doctoral student at the University of Notre Dame, helped me find much of the key secondary literature while I was serving as the Myser Fellow at David Solomon’s Center for Ethics and Culture. Thomas Hibbs and Peter Candler kindly asked me to contribute to a special issue of American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly on ‘Con- temporary Thomisms’. My essay appeared as ‘Biblical Thomism and the Doctrine of Providence’, ACPQ 83 (2009): 339–62, and portions of the essay appear in this book. Thanks to Thomas Joseph White andEmmanuelPerrier,OP,forreadingandcommentingonadraftof thatessay. At a critical moment, Jörgen Vijgen helped me think through the structure of the book. Without his deeply appreciated insights, there wouldhavebeennobook,andIhavehimtothankformanyenjoyable conversations and for valuable bibliographical references. Guy Man- sini, OSB, Andrew Hofer, OP, Michael Allen, Hans Boersma, and RalphDelCollegenerouslyreadearlydraftsofthebook,madehelpful corrections,andimprovedthemanuscriptenormously.Furtherthanks toMichaelAllenforinvitingmetopresentanearlyversionofChapter1 to a doctoral colloquium at Wheaton College. A brief conversation with Lewis Ayres about Augustine’s theology of predestination also provedhelpful. I owe profound appreciation to Tom Perridge for his guidance of this book through the process at Oxford, and for his choice of readers, whose wise suggestions turned a flawed manuscript into a much better monograph: thanks in this regard to Fergus Kerr, OP, andananonymousreader.GavinD’Costaofferedimportanthelpata critical juncture. Let me state my special gratitude to John Webster, by whose efforts, well beyond the call of duty, the book was most improved.ThomasJosephWhitereadalatedraftandsavedmefrom
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