Providence

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Given all that we now know about the world and mankind, in what way might God be said to have any influence at all on nature, man and history? How can the hope and confidence expressed in prayer be reconciled with the research of the scientist, psychologist and sociologist? These are the important questions with which Professor Langford deals in his book. He begins by exploring three more specific issues. What kind of guidance or intervention is alleged to be involved in claims about providence? Is the claim that providence is at work in any sense an empirical claim? How can any intervention or involvement be attributed to the timeless and passionless God of the Christian tradition? He then reviews the historical background to modern discussion about providence, and illustrates the typical use of the concept by five analogies: the sun, the wind, the tide, space-time and human action. This leads him to explore special questions about the possible working of God in the different orders of the natural world, the human world and history. Finally, having explored the basic grammar of the concept of providence, he faces the fundamental questions of the coherence and validity of the concept in the twentieth century. He concludes that, for all the difficulties, a case can be made out for both general and special providence.