Divine Action and the Human Mind

Theologians will commonly insist that the human mind is uniquely spiritual or open to divine influence, and yet this intuition of dualism is out of step with contemporary science. This book challenges theological models of divine action that locate God's activity in human mind, instead emphasizing the relationship between God and all of nature.

Is the human mind uniquely nonphysical or even spiritual, such that divine intentions can meet physical realities? As scholars in science and religion have spent decades attempting to identify a ''causal joint'' between God and the natural world, human consciousness has been often privileged as just such a locus of divine-human interaction. However, this intuitively dualistic move is both out of step with contemporary science and theologically insufficient. By discarding the God-nature model implied by contemporary noninterventionist divine action theories, one is freed up to explore theological and metaphysical alternatives for understanding divine action in the mind. Sarah Lane Ritchie suggests that a theologically robust theistic naturalism offers a more compelling vision of divine action in the mind. By affirming that to be fully natural is to be involved with God''s active presence, one may affirm divine action not only in the human mind, but throughout the natural world.