About Providence, Divine Action and the Church


In this blog, Terry J. Wright posts thoughts and shares research on the Christian doctrine of providence. This doctrine testifies to God’s provision for all things through creation’s high priest, the man Christ Jesus. However, the precise meaning and manner of this provision is a perpetually open question, and this blog is a forum for discussion of the many issues relating to providence and the place of the Church within God’s action.

Friday 15 June 2012

John C. McDowell on John Calvin on Providence and Prayer

Another day, another notice! Jason alerts us to Myk Habets and Bobby Grow's Evangelical Calvinism, which contains an interesting looking chapter by John C. McDowell, entitled 'Idolaters at Providential Prayer: Calvin’s Praying Through the Divine Governance', on John Calvin's doctrine of providence and its connection to prayer. Here's the description taken from the book's introduction, again, courtesy of Jason:

John McDowell reflects on a cluster of issues arising from the work of John Calvin on providence, retrieving Calvin from some of the more deterministic readings of his account, and moves from there to make connections between theology and practice, the formation and transformation of judgment, and of persons in prayerful correspondence to the God of providential concursus. McDowell considers six key points from Calvin’s theology of prayer, providence, and God, and draws these into an acute dialogue with contemporary concerns before offering a concluding definition of prayer.

Looks good. Seeing as I'm someone who reads Calvin's doctrine of providence as a very deterministic reading, I'll be sure to get hold of this for my correction!

2 comments:

  1. Hi Terry, I hope you enjoy the book and my essay. I thoroughly enjoyed turning my hand back to Calvin and starting my reflections on providence. Hopefully it'll eventually become part of a book on Barth's politics of prayer. Critical comments would be most welcome.

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  2. Thanks for stopping by, John. I'll try to get hold of your essay as soon as I can.

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