Mark W. Elliott Providence Perceived Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte Begründet von Karl Holl† und Hans Lietzmann† Herausgegeben von Christian Albrecht und Christoph Markschies Band 124 Mark W. Elliott Providence Perceived Divine Action from a Human Point of View DE GRUYTER ISBN978-3-11-031056-6 e-ISBN(PDF)978-3-11-031064-1 e-ISBN(EPUB)978-3-11-038297-6 ISSN1861-5996 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData ACIPcatalogrecordforthisbookhasbeenappliedforattheLibraryofCongress. BibliographicinformationpublishedbytheDeutscheNationalbibliothek TheDeutscheNationalbibliothekliststhispublicationintheDeutscheNationalbibliografie; detailedbibliographicdataareavailableontheInternetathttp://dnb.dnb.de. ©2015WalterdeGruyterGmbH,Berlin/Boston Printingandbinding:CPIbooksGmbH,Leck ♾Printedonacid-freepaper PrintedinGermany www.degruyter.com Acknowledgement Research for this book was carried out during eight months of research leave from St Andrews University during the 2012–13 session, for which I remain verygrateful.AswellasthefinelibrarystaffatStAndrews(andjustasfinecol- leagues),andthefacilitiesofNewCollegeLibraryinEdinburgh,Iwanttorender thankstotheUniversityofNotreDame,theProtestantseTheologischeUniversi- teit in Kampen and to the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München for invita- tionstocarryoutmyresearchthereduringthatperiod.TheAlexandervonHum- boldtStiftungfundedmytimeinMunich,andnotforthefirsttimeIamindebted tothatinstitution. Many thanks too totheexcellent people at DeGruyter,espe- cially the supportive Albrecht Döhnert and Stefan Selbmann, as well as Chri- stoph Markschies for including it in the series he edits. At a personal level I would want to mention appreciatively (in no particular order) Gary Anderson, Francesca Murphy, Lewis Ayres, James Eglinton, Hans Burger,Gijsbert van den Brink,MirjamvanVeen,KnutBackhaus,LorenStuckenbruck,SandyandBrigitte Wedderburn, Scott Hafemann, Tanya Walker, Eric Covington and last but not least Alison Jack for help with this project. Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One: Providence in the early Christian Church’s Theology 5 Ecumenical Beginnings after the Apostolic Era 5 The Western development 37 Political History 45 Chapter Two: The Medieval Account of Providence 55 Boethius first 55 Medieval Historiography 71 Byzantium and Eastern Christianity 84 The Western High Middle Ages 92 Chapter Three: Later Medieval Developments 104 Alternatives to the High Medieval Consensus 104 More radical traditions 128 Chapter Four: Reformation Providence 135 The impact of Luther 135 Calvin and the Swiss-Dutch tradition 141 The Heidelberg Catechism and Bullinger 149 And the Lutherans? 157 Catholic voices 166 Chapter Five: The Doctrine’s Fortunes in the Early Modern Era 173 Protestant and Catholic perceptions 173 Philosophical Moves 189 Theological responses in the Early Enlightenment 194 Chapter Six: The Enlightenment’s ongoing Challenge to the Doctrine of Providence 202 Later Enlightenment voices 202 Hegel and Beyond 221 Chapter Seven: Providence in twentieth-century theological discussion 231 The major contribution of Barth: renewing the tradition 233 VIII Contents Reactions to Barth on Providence 242 Providence in post-confessional German theology from 1960 onwards 247 English-speakingdiscussion 260 Recent Catholic contribution to the Doctrine 267 The place of the historical in God’s purposes 272 Chapter Eight: Coming up to date: works in the last five years 279 Conclusion 291 Bibliography 295 Index of Scripture References 325 Index of Key Figures 328 Introduction Thisopeningchapterisnottheplacetotrytobesynthetic,letalonesystematic. Indeed,eventhechaptersthatfollow willhardlypleasethereaderwhoislook- ing for such qualities. At times this book might seem annaliste in the sense of recounting “one damn thinker after another.” Moreover, a short apology as to whythisworkwillbelargelyanattempttodescribepastthinkingusingthehis- torical research of others is required. First, theology has always drawn on the pastgenerations’theologizingasits life-blood,hencethe needto presentmove- mentsandthinkersinsomesortofhistoricalorderandwithfullassistancefrom theworkoftherespectiveexpertsoneachperiod.Thatistoresistthetemptation formoderntheologianstoignoreboththesequenceofprimarysourcesandrel- evanthistoricaltheologicalscholarshipinahurrytoannextherealmof“thetra- dition”andtodisposeofitlikeitsproperty.Thisworkintendstocountertheten- dency among theologians to treat history badly and anachronistically. For, employingpostmodernismasafigleafforsuchshamefulbehaviour,suchmod- erntheologyassertsthatthereisnosuchthingashistory,onlythingsinthepast that can be made useful, like the odd original fireplace in one’s hi-tech dream home.Ideas,oneistold,get“receivedaccordingtothemodeofthereceiver”(it- self a re-conditioned idea from Thomas Aquinas) and that justifies pinning a modernideatoanancientname,andcolonizingit.¹Itishenceunderstandable thatsomecontemporarytheologypreferstoescapefromthecontingentsofpast traditions and prefers to deal in more general discourse of meta-ethical nature with reference to“community”, “hospitality”, “inclusion.” However,forallthisunfortunatebehaviourtowardsthepast(thosewhocol- onise it and those who ignore or patronise it), there are plenty of examples of exemplary practice in allowing the voices of the past to be heard in concert, even if the perfect eludes us. Jaroslav Pelikan’s The Christian Tradition comes tomind,asdoesBernardMcGinn’sThePresenceofGod.Multi-authoredattempts aresomethingdifferent,butonestandsinaweandadmirationbeforethe(Prot- estant)HandbuchderDogmen-undTheologiegeschichteandthe(Catholic)Hand- buch der Dogmengeschichte. One or two attempts at the history of exegesis are also inspiring. Henri Brémond’s Histoire littéraire du sentiment religieux en Franceismorespecializedyetinitsownway“immense.”AlisterMcGrath’sIus- titia Dei continues tooffermuch for understandingthe developmentof “Justifi-  JohnF.Wippel,“ThomasAquinasandtheAxiom’WhatisReceivedisReceivedAccordingto theModeoftheReceiver’”,inAStraightPath:EssaysinHonorofArthurHyman,ed.RuthLink- Salinger(Washington,D.C.:TheCatholicUniversityofAmericaPress,1988),279–89. 2 Introduction cation,” and provided that author with a tracing flare toguide his subsequent, popular introductions to Christian theology. Second,inattemptingtobesyntheticaboutaperiodoraschoolorathinker fromthe past,drawingon agoodlyamountof teamworkis appropriate. If a re- spectedcontemporaryscholar(ortwoorthree)haswrittenabookonthetheme ofProvidence(oritscognates)inx,thenitnotonlysavestimeintheattemptto allow a wider picture to emerge, it is an act of collegial trust to resist the urge alwaystogobackadfontesandre-readtheprimarytextsforoneself.Obviously importantthingscanbemissedevenbythebestscholars,butnoteverypieceof scholarshipneedstobelikethedissertation,withafixedamountofprimaryma- terial from a certain provenance,whose secrets yet need to be brought into the sunlight. Agood monograph on‘Providence in x’ will point one to the key pri- mary texts,where the argument turns, or is pithily summed up by the original author.Hencesomethingofthatflavourshouldcomethrough.Nofurtherorlon- gerapologyneedstobemadefortherelianceonsecondarysources.Secondary sources which are studies based on primary sources have done the work of se- lecting and compressing that a work of this sort very much needs. It strikes me as something almost disrespectful to rely on our own three-hour dip into a commentary or a treatise when there is a work devoted to that text that took threeormoreyearsintheresearching.Creativitycomesintheuseandinterweav- ingofresearchofothers,andofteningoingthroughthesecondarysourcestothe primaryones,whenspecificquestionsrelatedtoProvidencegounanswered.This willinvolvedivingintoprimarysourcesatmanypointswherethethingremains unexplored,orthequestionsonehastoaskaresomehowdifferent.Yetwhatisto beavoidedislargeparaphraseofchunksofprimarytext,unlessitcomesfroma text that has not yet been translated. Furthermore,onelooksatspecialiststudiespartlybecausetheyoftenaimto put textsin theircontexts.ThereforeChurch Historyor, rather,thatwhichisre- flected in the primary texts of Christian theology and spirituality through the years and according to context, is invaluable when heard as much on its own terms as possible, not least for this particular doctrine: Providence. For Church HistorydealswithasamatteroffirstimportancetheperceptionsofGod’sdeal- ings with his people.Church History is invested in understandinghow the way people haveregardedProvidencehas in turn made adifferenceto how they re- ceived biblical and historical teaching anterior to themselves, and how they themselves then added to the growing tradition. The biblical texts themselves in turn stand as records of how the history of God and humanity in particular times and places was grasped and interpreted. This re-appropriation went on even during the biblical period: books like those which make up the so-called “Wisdom Literature” emerge from a self-understanding of writers representing