Table Of ContentTHEOLOGICAL DETERMINISM
This volume unites established authors and rising young voices in
philosophical theology and philosophy of religion to offer the single
most wide-ranging examination of theological determinism-in terms
of both authors represented and issues investigated-published to date.
Fifteen contributors present discussions about theological (or divine)
determinism, the view that God determines everything that occurs
in the world. Some authors provide arguments in favor of this posi-
tion, while others provide considerations against it. Many contribu-
tors investigate the relationship between theological determinism
and other philosophical issues (the principle of sufficient reason; the
compatibility of determinism and free will; moral luck), theological
doctrines (creation ex nihilo; divine forgiveness; the inevitability of
sin; the unity of Christ’s will with God’s), or moral attitudes and
practices (trusting God; resenting the ill-will of others; resisting evil).
This book is essential reading for all those interested in the relation-
ship between theological determinism and philosophical thought.
Peter Furlong is Professor of Philosophy at Valencia College. He
is the author of The Challenges of Divine Determinism: A Philosophical
Analysis (Cambridge, 2019).
Leigh Vicens is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Augustana
University. She is co-author, with Simon Kittle, of God and
Human Freedom (Cambridge, 2019), in Cambridge Elements in the
Philosophy of Religion.
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THEOLOGICA L
DETER MINISM
New Perspectives
edited by
PETER FURLONG
Valencia College
LEIGH VICENS
Augustana University
Published online by Cambridge University Press
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© Cambridge University Press 2022
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First published 2022
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Contents
List of Contributors page vii
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction 1
Peter Furlong and Leigh Vicens
1 Theological Determinism and Creation 15
Heath White
2 Am I Here by Accident? 30
T. J. Mawson
3 You Searched Me and Knew Me: Divine Determinism
and the God of Love 47
Jesse Couenhoven
4 Fatalism and Some Varieties of Contrastive Explanation 65
Alexander R. Pruss
5 Divine Transcendence: Is There a Third Way in the Debate over
Theological Determinism? 81
W. Matthews Grant
6 The Incompatibility of Universal, Determinate Divine
Action with Human Free Will 100
Simon Kittle
7 Natural Compatibilists Should Be Theological Compatibilists 119
Taylor W. Cyr
8 An Argument for Theological Incompatibilism 133
Alicia Finch
9 Human Freedom and the Inevitability of Sin 150
Leigh Vicens
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vi Contents
10 Hard Theological Determinism and Divine Forgiveness
Are Incompatible 165
Justin Capes
11 Moral Luck, Free Will Theodicies, and Theological
Determinism 184
Philip Swenson
12 Divine Determinism and Gratitude for Sins 195
Peter Furlong
13 The Problem of Trust 213
Daniel M. Johnson
14 Toward a Reactive Attitudes Theodicy 231
Garrett Pendergraft
15 Christ in Gethsemane 251
Katherine Sonderegger
Bibliography 264
Index 276
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Contributors
Justin Capes Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Flagler College
Jesse Couenhoven Professor of Moral Theology, Villanova University
Taylor W. Cyr Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Samford University
Alicia Finch Associate Professor of Philosophy, Northern Illinois
University
Peter Furlong Professor of Humanities in Philosophy, Valencia College
W. Matthews Grant Professor of Philosophy, University of St. Thomas
Daniel M. Johnson Associate Professor of Philosophy, Shawnee State
University
Simon Kittle Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, University of Leeds
T. J. Mawson Dean, Edgar Jones Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy,
St. Peter’s College, Oxford University
Garrett Pendergraft Blanche E. Seaver Professor of Philosophy,
Pepperdine University
Alexander R. Pruss Professor of Philosophy, Baylor University
Katherine Sonderegger William Meade Chair of Systematic
Theology, Virginia Theological Seminary
Philip Swenson Assistant Professor of Philosophy, College of William
and Mary
Leigh Vicens Associate Professor of Philosophy, Augustana University
Heath White Professor of Philosophy, University of North
Carolina-Wilmington
vii
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Acknowledgments
We are indebted to the many people who made this book possible. First
are the thirteen other contributors who wrote and revised their chapters
in the midst of a pandemic, managing many commitments (and stressors)
while seeing this project through to completion. We would also like to
thank Hilary Gaskin at Cambridge University Press and a pair of anony-
mous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. Finally, we are grate-
ful to our families for helping us find the time to work on this book.
viii
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Introduction
Peter Furlong and Leigh Vicens
This volume brings together fifteen new essays, some by well-established
philosophers and theologians, others by rising young scholars, on the topic
of theological (or divine) determinism. But what is theological determin-
ism? And who cares if it’s true? In this Introduction to the volume, we
begin with a brief overview of the view, before turning to reasons we think
it is a subject of importance today. We then summarize some arguments
commonly offered in support of theological determinism, as well as some
objections to it. Finally, we give a brief overview of each chapter.
0.1 Defining the View
Theological (or divine) determinism is the view that God determines every
creaturely event. Loosely, we can think of this as the view that God has
decreed the world to be exactly as it is, or that God controls every aspect of
creation. According to theological determinism, the unfolding of the uni-
verse through time occurs exactly as God has arranged, and, given God’s
will, it does so infallibly. When we look for more precise definitions, we
find matters become a little more complicated.1 It is tempting to define
the way in which God determines in causal terms. Derk Pereboom, for
example, defines theological determinism as “the position that God is the
sufficient active cause of everything in creation, whether directly or by way
of secondary causes” (2011, 262). Some, however, might worry that we
should not think of God’s activity as causal, since causal language is tied
too closely with creaturely causation, with all the limitations this includes.2
Heath White avoids this issue with the definition he provides in his contri-
bution to this volume (Chapter 1):
1 For further discussion, see Vicens (2021), Furlong (2019), and White (2019).
2 For discussion of this issue, see Vicens (2021).
1
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