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"Free will and determinism -- Religious aspects"
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Striving With Grace
The question of whether or not our decisions and efforts make a difference in an uncertain and uncontrollable world had enormous significance for writers in Anglo-Saxon England.Striving with Gracelooks at seven authors who wrote either in Latin or Old English, and the ways in which they sought to resolve this fundamental question. For Anglo-Saxon England, as for so much of the medieval West, the problem of individual will was complicated by a widespread theistic tradition that influenced writers, thinkers, and their hypotheses.
Aaron J Kleist examines the many factors that produced strikingly different, though often complementary, explanations of free will in early England. Having first established the perspectives of Augustine, he considers two Church Fathers who rivalled Augustine's impact on early England, Gregory the Great and the Venerable Bede, and reconstructs their influence on later English writers. He goes on to examine Alfred the Great'sOld English Boethiusand Lantfred of Winchester'sCarmen de libero arbitrio, and the debt that both texts owe to Boethius' classicDe consolatione Philosophiae. Finally, Kleist discusses Wulfstan the Homilist and Ælfric of Eynsham, two seminal writers of late Anglo-Saxon England.Striving with Graceshows that all of these authors, despite striking differences in their sources and logic, underscore humanity's need for grace even as they labour to affirm the legitimacy of human effort.
eBook
Degenerates and Madmen: Moral Accountability and Divine Determinism in the Thought of R. Yitzchak Hutner and Hazon Ish
At the end of a halakhic analysis on the mundane legal issue of milking cows on Shabbat in pre-state Palestine, Rabbi Avraham Karelitz (Hazon Ish) made the radical theological claim that \"there is no difference between a degenerate and a madman.\" This article explores the theological and legal challenges posed by such a statement, which blurs the line between moral accountability and psychological incapacity. In a thoughtful and original response, R. Yitzchak Hutner proposes a dual-framework approach: in the personal, religious domain, one should view wrongdoing as partofdivine providence, while in the legal domain, human autonomy and responsibility remain essential. Drawing on Maimonidean principles, kabbalistic ideas, and ethical teachings, R. Hutner seeks to resolve the tension between divine determinism, personal autonomy, and the foundations of halakhic justice. His framework parallels concepts found in the writings of R. Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin but introduces important distinctions. This study highlights the sophistication of R. Hutner's thought and its relevance to enduring questions of free will, justice, and spiritual growth.
Journal Article
Divine Providence and Human Agency
Divine Providence and Human Agency develops an understanding of God and God's relation to creation that perceives God as sovereign over creation while, at the same time, allowing for a meaningful notion of human freedom. This book provides a bridge between contemporary approaches that emphasise human freedom, such as process theology and those influenced by it, and traditional theologies that stress divine omnipotence.This book argues that it is essential for Christian theology to maintain that God is ultimately in charge of history: otherwise there would be no solid grounds for Christian hope. Yet, the modern human self-understanding as free agent within certain limitations must be taken seriously. Jensen approaches this apparent contradiction from within a consistently trinitarian framework. Jensen argues that a Christian understanding of God must be based on the experience of the saving presence of Christ in the Church, leading to an apophatic and consistently trinitarian theology. This serves as the framework for the discussion of divine omnipotence and human freedom. On the basis of the theological foundation established in this book, it is possible to frame the problem in a way that makes it possible to live within this tension. Building on this foundation, Jensen develops an understanding of history as the unfolding of the divine purpose and as an expression of God's very being, which is self-giving love and desire for communion. This book offers an important contribution to the debate of the doctrine of God in the context of an evolutionary universe.
eBook
Freedom, Teleology, and Evil
In Freedom, Teleology, and Evil Stewart Goetz'defends the existence of libertarian freedom of the will.'He argues that choices are essentially uncaused events with teleological explanations in the form of reasons or purposes.'Because choices are uncaused events with teleological explanations, whenever agents choose they are free to choose otherwise.'Given this freedom to choose otherwise, agents are morally responsible for how they choose.'Thus,'Goetz advocates and defends the principle of alternative possibilities which states that agents are morally responsible for a choice only if they are free to choose otherwise.'Finally, given that agents have libertarian freedom, Goetz contends that this freedom is integral to the construction of a theodicy which explains why God allows evil.'
eBook
The Hidden Root
The concept of Behira, on the other hand, will include all types of human free will proposed by philosophy and theology, as well as all contingent elements; that is, those elements that are not absolute or unavoidable and that are not necessary and fixed but relative and possible, coincidental and random, transient and temporary-some of which enable free will, derive from it, or enable creativity and dynamism. The scholarly consensus is that R. Tzadok continued the fatalistic-existentialistic doctrine of his rabbi, whose doctrine emphasizes absolute Divine power (Yedi'a).5 Such a situation on the one hand fatalistically determines man's actions, yet on the other allows for significant auton- omy, since in certain cases, he may violate the halakha and the normative law according to the dynamic will of God.6 According to Aviezer Cohen,7 this is a model of religious existentialism by which God's will is revealed in man's individual and unique will: [...]the first appearance of a word in the bible;9 the shape of the letters and the way they are pronounced;10 sins and sinners mentioned by the Bible and the Talmud;11 opinions that had been rejected in the Talmud;12 the location of a certain sugya in the Talmud;13 and more.14 Scholars tend to see R. Tzadok's doctrine as a mitigation of his rabbi's doctrine. Tzadok highlights man's potent ability to change and establish (not merely reveal, as in R. Leiner's doctrine) the root of his soul and even affect Divine worlds and this world.
Journal Article
Chance and Determinism in Avicenna and Averroes
This book addresses the issue of determinism in Avicenna and Averroes through an analysis of their views on chance, matter and divine providence. It sets the debate against the philosophical/historical background of Aristotelianism, Neoplatonism and Islamic theology.
eBook
Human freedom, Christian righteousness : Philip Melanchthon's exegetical dispute with Erasmus of Rotterdam
This book argues the provocative thesis that Philip Melanchthon, so often pictured as hopelessly caught in the middle between Erasmus and Luther, and more \"Erasmian\" than Lutheran in his thought, was, at least in his theological methods and views, not Erasmian at all, but in fact sharply opposed to Erasmus.Author Timothy J.
eBook