Questions about divine providence have preoccupied Christians for generations: to what degree does God concern himself with and intervene in the affairs of everyday life?
This book introduces readers to four prevailing views on divine providence, with particular attention to the questions of human free will, the problem of evil, and God's perception of time.
Volume contributors and their basic viewpoints are:
- Paul Helseth - God causes every creaturely event that occurs.
- William Lane Craig - through his "middle knowledge," God controls the course of worldly affairs without predetermining any creatures' free decisions.
- Ron Highfield - God controls creatures by liberating their decision-making.
- Gregory Boyd - human decisions can be free only if God neither determines nor knows what they will be.
Introductory and closing essays by Dennis Jowers give relevant background and guide readers toward their own informed beliefs about divine providence.
Four Views on Divine Providence helps readers think theologically and biblically about all the issues involved in exploring this doctrine. The point-counterpoint format reveals the assumptions and considerations that drive equally learned and sincere theologians to disagreement with each other. It unearths the genuinely decisive issues beneath a philosophically dense debate.
The Counterpoints series presents a comparison and critique of scholarly views on topics important to Christians that are both fair-minded and respectful of the biblical text. Each volume is a one-stop reference that allows readers to evaluate the different positions on a specific issue and form their own, educated opinion.
William Lane Craig (PhD, University of Birmingham, England) is research professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University and lives in Marietta, GA.
Ron Highfield (B.A., M.Th., Harding University; M.A., Ph.D., Rice University), Professor of Religion at Pepperdine University, is the author of Great is the Lord: Theology for the Praise of God (Eerdmans, 2008).and articles in Theological Studies, the Christian Scholars’ Review, the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Faculty Dialogue, the Stone-Campbell Journal, and Restoration Quarterly.
Gregory A. Boyd (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is a pastor at Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Previously a professor of theology at Bethel University, several of his many books include Letters from a Skeptic, Repenting of Religion, Myth of a Christian Nation, God at War, and Satan and the Problem of Evil.
Paul Kjoss Helseth (Ph.D. Marquette University) is Professor of Christian Thought at Northwestern College in St. Paul, MN. He is the author of "Right Reason" and the Princeton Mind: An Unorthodox Proposal (Phillipsburg, N.J.: P & R Publishing, 2010), and has co-edited and contributed to Beyond the Bounds (Wheaton: Crossway, 2003) and Reclaiming the Center (Wheaton: Crossway, 2004).
Dennis Jowers is associate professor of Theology and Apologetics at Faith Evangelical Seminary in Tacoma, Washington.
