Free will in theology

question then is how can we have free will when God knows everything. Augustine, in a form of a dialog, argues that free will and God’s foreknowledge are compatible. He refute the idea that God’s activity puts freedom at risk and that our free choices are free from God’s activity. Human beings can choose one particular action from among various alternatives. The power to will is not taken from us by or is not opposed to God’s foreknowledge. If we did not have free will, in other words, if we…

agrees with Job’s theology than he agrees with the theology of his friends. First, while everyone else at the time the Old Testament was written believed that the world was fashioned and ruled by many conflicting gods, the Old Testament emphasizes that everything ultimately comes from one Creator God. To drive home this highly distinctive belief, Old Testament authors consistently emphasize God as the ultimate source of everything that happens in creation. Even the consequences of free decisions…

urges action from those of us grounded in an evangelistic commitment to living our lives with faith, love, and hope of the gospel. Part Three. Evangelism and the Character of Christian Theology. In chapter ten, Stephen K. Pickard, asserts there are “dimensions of full and free speech relevant to evangelism and theology in the church” (page 157). So, under the constraint of God’s own simplicity, how we communicate the gospel, and…

influential papal encyclicals for its view on faith and reason. The encyclical bridges the topics of philosophy, which is often associated with Hellenism, and theology, which is often associated with Catholicism, and shows how they work together as one free-flowing unit. In this paper, I will be proving how the Pope does this by talking about theology, philosophy, faith, reason, and how they all work together to further human’s journey towards truth. Before diving into how the Pope explains…

Philip J. Hefner’s Opinion Editorial Bill Maher once described the healthcare reform for a universal healthcare system as being “the opposite of the free market.” In 2009, Philip J. Hefner wrote an opinion editorial entitled “Healthcare is About Bodies and Ourselves”. He states that there should be a universal healthcare system and that all countries in the world should participate in it, including the United States. He then goes on to state the five themes of prominent and frequently told…

out…During the last twenty years and more, we have as a nation been forging a bolt four our own national destruction.” The punishment is self-incurred: “We have sown the wind, only to reap the whirlwind.” In “Our National Fast,” furthermore, Douglass’s theology of judgment reaches a peak intensity. Here he draws directly from the prophets to chastise the Union’s political establishment, especially the Lincoln administration, for its lack of abolitionist initiative. Quoting Isaiah, Douglass…

Gutiérrez lays out a theology that aims to understand the condition of poverty and oppression in Latin America. Gutiérrez was a Catholic Marxist who believed that both the spiritual and the material mattered. Karl Marx claimed religion was a tool of oppression which constrains the poor in poverty. Gutiérrez agrees that religion can be a tool of oppression, he also disagrees and claims religion as a potential tool of liberation. To achieve liberation humanity needs to: be set free from the…

Ultimately, since providence is the ultimate and only source of causation – chance lies in direct opposition. Providence precludes the possibility of chance because it essentially presupposes a final cause: ‘In no way can one deny the wondrous traces in the generation of the world, and the parts of the heavens and the parts of the animal and the plants. All that does not proceed (sadara) from chance (ittifàq), but presupposes a certain arrangement (tadbìr)’. (Cited in Belo, 109, Avicenna, Al…

Ministry and Theology Over time, Augustine formulated his conceptual understanding of the rationality of evil, original sin, grace, human freedom, predestination and the sacraments. Initially intrigued by the dualistic themes of dark and light, and flesh and spirit, Augustine’s theological journey saw him trying to set his life in order by testing a variety of belief structures. Much of the focus of Augustine’s writing was in response to the Manicheans regarding the origin of evil, to…

Mark Tranvik does an amazing job in translating Martin Luther's treatise: The Freedom of a Christian, where Luther contrasts countless religious components - the body (the inner person) and soul (the other person), and faith and works, - these subjects Luther's uses as an attempt to strengthen and return the Christian faith to its true origin. He argues that works have no effect in obtaining righteousness or salvation, instead it is a natural product of humanity. Instead, acknowledging that…