10 - Revelation and Divine Action

Summary

In the science–theology dialogue, a ‘causal joint’ understanding of ‘special’ divine action has until recently been predominant. However, the distinction between ‘general’ and ‘special’ modes of divine action has recently been questioned in what Sarah Lane Ritchie has called a ‘theological turn’ in understandings of divine action. In the author’s own contribution to this turn, criticism of causal joint theorists’ implicit (and sometimes explicit) assumption of a temporal God is criticized, as is the failure to apply apophatic perspectives to the notion of God’s ‘personal’ nature. In addition, an argument from human providential action is seen as significant for developing a ‘fixed instructions’ model of divine action, in which teleology is regarded as important (though not in a way that challenges scientific perspectives). What is effectively a ‘single act’ model of divine action is thus defended, but of a different kind to that which is usually understood when this term is used.