Providence and Trinity

(Originally written February 24, 2006)

Quiz

1) What does Rabbi Harold Kushner deny?
- God is all powerful

2) Who said, 'whatever is, is right'?
- Alexander Pope

3) The story of Oedipus Rex reflects what worldview?
- Fatalism

4) According to William of Ockham since the creation God acts according to his ordained power.

5) True/False: According to Aquinas God's omnipotence makes him free to do anything:
-False

Special Providence

God sustains everything/everyone

1. Nothing happens by chance in "decrees, not bare permission" (Calvin)
2. Providence is not fate (Oedipus Rex)
a. Fate is impersonal; providence is personal
b. Fate deals solely with destiny; providence deals with the journey as well

Alternatives to Providence

Deism - natural law; dualistic

Pantheism - all is God's will, monistic

"Spiritual" Providence (Harold Kushner) "God can't do everything"

Augustine laid the groundwork for the social Trinity: "God is love, since love requires multiple people God must be more than a single person"

Richard of St. Victor (died 1173) defined God as three person bound together by love

This view as viewed by some as a form of tritheism, which is the view of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirt as three different (but equal) gods.

Aquinas corrected and expounded on Richard's doctrine and stated God was one substance (essence) but that each person of the Trinity was "relationally" distinct.