Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T14:36:16.012Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 12 - Divine Determinism and Gratitude for Sins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2022

Peter Furlong
Affiliation:
Valencia College, Florida
Leigh Vicens
Affiliation:
Augustana University
Get access

Summary

If theological determinism is true, then everything that occurs in our world is willed by God. Since there is clearly much suffering and sin in this world, the theological determinist seems forced to accept that suffering and sin are willed by God as well. This seems to lead to a troubling conclusion concerning our ordinary reactions to extreme suffering and serious sin in the world. Plausibly, we should be horrified by sin and suffering, but it also seems that we should be thankful whenever we believe God’s will is fulfilled. This sort of double-mindedness might seem problematic, either because it is conceptually or psychologically impossible, or because it is immoral to be thankful for sin and suffering. In this chapter, I argue that the problem of double-mindedness is not as bad as it might first appear, both because such a mental state seems appropriate in certain cases even if theological determinism is false, and because thankfulness for sins will not be common even in the lives of virtuous divine determinists.

Type
Chapter
Information
Theological Determinism
New Perspectives
, pp. 195 - 212
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×