Table Of ContentMark W. Elliott
Providence Perceived
Arbeiten zur
Kirchengeschichte
Begründet von
Karl Holl† und Hans Lietzmann†
Herausgegeben von
Christian Albrecht und Christoph Markschies
Band 124
Mark W. Elliott
Providence
Perceived
Divine Action from a Human Point of View
DE GRUYTER
ISBN978-3-11-031056-6
e-ISBN(PDF)978-3-11-031064-1
e-ISBN(EPUB)978-3-11-038297-6
ISSN1861-5996
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
ACIPcatalogrecordforthisbookhasbeenappliedforattheLibraryofCongress.
BibliographicinformationpublishedbytheDeutscheNationalbibliothek
TheDeutscheNationalbibliothekliststhispublicationintheDeutscheNationalbibliografie;
detailedbibliographicdataareavailableontheInternetathttp://dnb.dnb.de.
©2015WalterdeGruyterGmbH,Berlin/Boston
Printingandbinding:CPIbooksGmbH,Leck
♾Printedonacid-freepaper
PrintedinGermany
www.degruyter.com
Acknowledgement
Research for this book was carried out during eight months of research leave
from St Andrews University during the 2012–13 session, for which I remain
verygrateful.AswellasthefinelibrarystaffatStAndrews(andjustasfinecol-
leagues),andthefacilitiesofNewCollegeLibraryinEdinburgh,Iwanttorender
thankstotheUniversityofNotreDame,theProtestantseTheologischeUniversi-
teit in Kampen and to the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München for invita-
tionstocarryoutmyresearchthereduringthatperiod.TheAlexandervonHum-
boldtStiftungfundedmytimeinMunich,andnotforthefirsttimeIamindebted
tothatinstitution. Many thanks too totheexcellent people at DeGruyter,espe-
cially the supportive Albrecht Döhnert and Stefan Selbmann, as well as Chri-
stoph Markschies for including it in the series he edits. At a personal level I
would want to mention appreciatively (in no particular order) Gary Anderson,
Francesca Murphy, Lewis Ayres, James Eglinton, Hans Burger,Gijsbert van den
Brink,MirjamvanVeen,KnutBackhaus,LorenStuckenbruck,SandyandBrigitte
Wedderburn, Scott Hafemann, Tanya Walker, Eric Covington and last but not
least Alison Jack for help with this project.
Contents
Introduction 1
Chapter One: Providence in the early Christian Church’s Theology 5
Ecumenical Beginnings after the Apostolic Era 5
The Western development 37
Political History 45
Chapter Two: The Medieval Account of Providence 55
Boethius first 55
Medieval Historiography 71
Byzantium and Eastern Christianity 84
The Western High Middle Ages 92
Chapter Three: Later Medieval Developments 104
Alternatives to the High Medieval Consensus 104
More radical traditions 128
Chapter Four: Reformation Providence 135
The impact of Luther 135
Calvin and the Swiss-Dutch tradition 141
The Heidelberg Catechism and Bullinger 149
And the Lutherans? 157
Catholic voices 166
Chapter Five: The Doctrine’s Fortunes in the Early Modern Era 173
Protestant and Catholic perceptions 173
Philosophical Moves 189
Theological responses in the Early Enlightenment 194
Chapter Six: The Enlightenment’s ongoing Challenge to the Doctrine of
Providence 202
Later Enlightenment voices 202
Hegel and Beyond 221
Chapter Seven: Providence in twentieth-century theological
discussion 231
The major contribution of Barth: renewing the tradition 233
VIII Contents
Reactions to Barth on Providence 242
Providence in post-confessional German theology from 1960
onwards 247
English-speakingdiscussion 260
Recent Catholic contribution to the Doctrine 267
The place of the historical in God’s purposes 272
Chapter Eight: Coming up to date: works in the last five years 279
Conclusion 291
Bibliography 295
Index of Scripture References 325
Index of Key Figures 328
Introduction
Thisopeningchapterisnottheplacetotrytobesynthetic,letalonesystematic.
Indeed,eventhechaptersthatfollow willhardlypleasethereaderwhoislook-
ing for such qualities. At times this book might seem annaliste in the sense of
recounting “one damn thinker after another.” Moreover, a short apology as to
whythisworkwillbelargelyanattempttodescribepastthinkingusingthehis-
torical research of others is required. First, theology has always drawn on the
pastgenerations’theologizingasits life-blood,hencethe needto presentmove-
mentsandthinkersinsomesortofhistoricalorderandwithfullassistancefrom
theworkoftherespectiveexpertsoneachperiod.Thatistoresistthetemptation
formoderntheologianstoignoreboththesequenceofprimarysourcesandrel-
evanthistoricaltheologicalscholarshipinahurrytoannextherealmof“thetra-
dition”andtodisposeofitlikeitsproperty.Thisworkintendstocountertheten-
dency among theologians to treat history badly and anachronistically. For,
employingpostmodernismasafigleafforsuchshamefulbehaviour,suchmod-
erntheologyassertsthatthereisnosuchthingashistory,onlythingsinthepast
that can be made useful, like the odd original fireplace in one’s hi-tech dream
home.Ideas,oneistold,get“receivedaccordingtothemodeofthereceiver”(it-
self a re-conditioned idea from Thomas Aquinas) and that justifies pinning a
modernideatoanancientname,andcolonizingit.¹Itishenceunderstandable
thatsomecontemporarytheologypreferstoescapefromthecontingentsofpast
traditions and prefers to deal in more general discourse of meta-ethical nature
with reference to“community”, “hospitality”, “inclusion.”
However,forallthisunfortunatebehaviourtowardsthepast(thosewhocol-
onise it and those who ignore or patronise it), there are plenty of examples of
exemplary practice in allowing the voices of the past to be heard in concert,
even if the perfect eludes us. Jaroslav Pelikan’s The Christian Tradition comes
tomind,asdoesBernardMcGinn’sThePresenceofGod.Multi-authoredattempts
aresomethingdifferent,butonestandsinaweandadmirationbeforethe(Prot-
estant)HandbuchderDogmen-undTheologiegeschichteandthe(Catholic)Hand-
buch der Dogmengeschichte. One or two attempts at the history of exegesis are
also inspiring. Henri Brémond’s Histoire littéraire du sentiment religieux en
Franceismorespecializedyetinitsownway“immense.”AlisterMcGrath’sIus-
titia Dei continues tooffermuch for understandingthe developmentof “Justifi-
JohnF.Wippel,“ThomasAquinasandtheAxiom’WhatisReceivedisReceivedAccordingto
theModeoftheReceiver’”,inAStraightPath:EssaysinHonorofArthurHyman,ed.RuthLink-
Salinger(Washington,D.C.:TheCatholicUniversityofAmericaPress,1988),279–89.
2 Introduction
cation,” and provided that author with a tracing flare toguide his subsequent,
popular introductions to Christian theology.
Second,inattemptingtobesyntheticaboutaperiodoraschoolorathinker
fromthe past,drawingon agoodlyamountof teamworkis appropriate. If a re-
spectedcontemporaryscholar(ortwoorthree)haswrittenabookonthetheme
ofProvidence(oritscognates)inx,thenitnotonlysavestimeintheattemptto
allow a wider picture to emerge, it is an act of collegial trust to resist the urge
alwaystogobackadfontesandre-readtheprimarytextsforoneself.Obviously
importantthingscanbemissedevenbythebestscholars,butnoteverypieceof
scholarshipneedstobelikethedissertation,withafixedamountofprimaryma-
terial from a certain provenance,whose secrets yet need to be brought into the
sunlight. Agood monograph on‘Providence in x’ will point one to the key pri-
mary texts,where the argument turns, or is pithily summed up by the original
author.Hencesomethingofthatflavourshouldcomethrough.Nofurtherorlon-
gerapologyneedstobemadefortherelianceonsecondarysources.Secondary
sources which are studies based on primary sources have done the work of se-
lecting and compressing that a work of this sort very much needs. It strikes
me as something almost disrespectful to rely on our own three-hour dip into a
commentary or a treatise when there is a work devoted to that text that took
threeormoreyearsintheresearching.Creativitycomesintheuseandinterweav-
ingofresearchofothers,andofteningoingthroughthesecondarysourcestothe
primaryones,whenspecificquestionsrelatedtoProvidencegounanswered.This
willinvolvedivingintoprimarysourcesatmanypointswherethethingremains
unexplored,orthequestionsonehastoaskaresomehowdifferent.Yetwhatisto
beavoidedislargeparaphraseofchunksofprimarytext,unlessitcomesfroma
text that has not yet been translated.
Furthermore,onelooksatspecialiststudiespartlybecausetheyoftenaimto
put textsin theircontexts.ThereforeChurch Historyor, rather,thatwhichisre-
flected in the primary texts of Christian theology and spirituality through the
years and according to context, is invaluable when heard as much on its own
terms as possible, not least for this particular doctrine: Providence. For Church
HistorydealswithasamatteroffirstimportancetheperceptionsofGod’sdeal-
ings with his people.Church History is invested in understandinghow the way
people haveregardedProvidencehas in turn made adifferenceto how they re-
ceived biblical and historical teaching anterior to themselves, and how they
themselves then added to the growing tradition. The biblical texts themselves
in turn stand as records of how the history of God and humanity in particular
times and places was grasped and interpreted. This re-appropriation went on
even during the biblical period: books like those which make up the so-called
“Wisdom Literature” emerge from a self-understanding of writers representing
