SEMINAR 2.3

Creation, Providence & Evil

What can creation ex nihilo mean in a world marked by evolutionary death, creaturely agency, and catastrophic suffering?

THE ARGUMENT
Providence names God’s faithful, noncompetitive relation to creation and must be confessed without making evil necessary or divinely authored.

Creation ex nihilo and providence are examined as confessions of creaturely dependence, divine freedom, and hope amid genuine evil.

By the end of this seminar
  1. 01

    Explain noncompetitive divine causality

  2. 02

    Distinguish permission, willing, and creaturely agency

  3. 03

    Audit pastoral speech about suffering

Learning sequence4 lessons
  1. 01

    Creation without a rival

    Ex nihilo denies that God orders preexistent matter or overcomes a competing power.

  2. 02

    Noncompetitive action

    God’s action and creaturely action do not occupy the same causal plane.

  3. 03

    Evil without a divine author

    Providence must confess faithful divine agency without making evil an instrument God needs.

  4. 04

    Providence under the cross

    Christian providence is interpreted through God’s solidarity with sufferers and promise of new creation.