Table Of ContentPREDESTINATION
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Predestination
Biblical and Theological Paths
MATTHEW LEVERING
1
3
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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
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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
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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
Description:Predestination has been the subject of perennial controversy among Christians, although in recent years theologians have shied away from it as a divisive and unedifying topic. In this book Matthew Levering argues that Christian theological reflection needs to continue to return to the topic of prede
