Book contents
- Theological Determinism
- Theological Determinism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Theological Determinism and Creation
- Chapter 2 Am I Here by Accident?
- Chapter 3 You Searched Me and Knew Me
- Chapter 4 Fatalism and Some Varieties of Contrastive Explanation
- Chapter 5 Divine Transcendence
- Chapter 6 The Incompatibility of Universal, Determinate Divine Action with Human Free Will
- Chapter 7 Natural Compatibilists Should Be Theological Compatibilists
- Chapter 8 An Argument for Theological Incompatibilism
- Chapter 9 Human Freedom and the Inevitability of Sin
- Chapter 10 Hard Theological Determinism and Divine Forgiveness Are Incompatible
- Chapter 11 Moral Luck, Free Will Theodicies, and Theological Determinism
- Chapter 12 Divine Determinism and Gratitude for Sins
- Chapter 13 The Problem of Trust
- Chapter 14 Toward a Reactive Attitudes Theodicy
- Chapter 15 Christ in Gethsemane
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 12 - Divine Determinism and Gratitude for Sins
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 September 2022
- Theological Determinism
- Theological Determinism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Theological Determinism and Creation
- Chapter 2 Am I Here by Accident?
- Chapter 3 You Searched Me and Knew Me
- Chapter 4 Fatalism and Some Varieties of Contrastive Explanation
- Chapter 5 Divine Transcendence
- Chapter 6 The Incompatibility of Universal, Determinate Divine Action with Human Free Will
- Chapter 7 Natural Compatibilists Should Be Theological Compatibilists
- Chapter 8 An Argument for Theological Incompatibilism
- Chapter 9 Human Freedom and the Inevitability of Sin
- Chapter 10 Hard Theological Determinism and Divine Forgiveness Are Incompatible
- Chapter 11 Moral Luck, Free Will Theodicies, and Theological Determinism
- Chapter 12 Divine Determinism and Gratitude for Sins
- Chapter 13 The Problem of Trust
- Chapter 14 Toward a Reactive Attitudes Theodicy
- Chapter 15 Christ in Gethsemane
- Bibliography
- Index
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.
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- Theological DeterminismNew Perspectives, pp. 195 - 212Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022