Providence Perceived : Divine Action from a Human Point of View

There have been few books on Divine Providence. For centuries the topic was filed under 'Divine Properties', 'Theodicy', 'Creation', 'Predestination'. This book foregrounds Providence as a doctrine, showing how it emerges from a consideration of human life's redemptive possibilities: a second wind or breath, as well as a 'second chance'.

This book will offer an account not so much of God''s Providence an sich, but rather of divine providence as experienced by believers and unbelievers. It will not ask questions about whether and how God knows the future, or how suffering can be accounted for (as is the case in the treatments by William Lane Craig, Richard Swinburne, or J. Sanders), but will focus on prayer and decision-making as a faithful and/or desperate response to the perception of God as having some controlling influence. The following gives an idea of the ground to be covered: The patristic foundations of the Christian view of Providence; The medieval synthesis of ''objective'' and ''subjective'' views; Reformational and Early Modern: the shift towards piety; Modern Enlightenment: Providence and Ethics; Barth and the Sceptics; The sense of Providence in the Modern Novel and World.