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Order of Contents
Articles 8+
Quotes 4
Historical 7
Latin 3
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Articles
Search also our Metaphysics page for “concur”.
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1500’s
Calvin, John & Theodore Beza – ‘Calvin & Beza on Providence: Translations by Knox’ trans. John Knox (1545, 1558, 1560; 2021)
These two valuable pieces on Providence by Calvin and Beza, though previously available in English, have lain in obscurity, so much so that most people likely do not know that they exist. They originally appeared, translated by John Knox from the French and Latin respectively, in the midst of Knox’s massive treatise on predestination. That treatise remains in old English, which is old enough and difficult enough that to many it is unreadable.
The Libertines, having such a high view of God’s eternal decree, held to what is known in philosophy as a form of Occasionalism, that all events that occur are directly and immediately worked by God. True secondary causation is eliminated. One main problem with this is that it makes God the Author of Sin, something that the Libertines expressly affirmed. Calvin here not only repudiates this blasphemy, but he also lays out three ways (and only three ways) in which God brings all things to pass through his providence, herein establishing true secondary causation.
Beza provides 29 propositions on providence from his work against Sebastian Castellio, touching upon similar themes as Calvin. Both Calvin and Beza’s pieces, while making some basic distinctions, expound the Lord’s providence in a way that is easy to grasp with illustrations from Scripture and human life.
Ursinus, Zachary – 2nd Sophism: Of the Cause of Sin in The Sum of Christian Religion: Delivered… in his Lectures upon the Catechism… tr. Henrie Parrie (Oxford, 1587), Of God’s Providence, 2. What the Providence of God is, pp. 409-15
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1600’s
Rutherford, Samuel – Christ Dying & Drawing Sinners to Himself… (London: 1647)
Assertion 5, ‘The Grace of God and our Free-Will in a fourfold sense may be said to concur in the same works of grace’, pp. 468-71
The first sense is that of Pelagians, the second, of Bellarmine, Jesuits and Arminians, the third, of Antinomians, the fourth of the Reformed.
Assertion 7, pp. 478-92
Gale, Theophilus – §9, pp. 26-49 of sect. 2, ‘On Physical Liberty’ tr. by AI by Nosferatu 63 pp. in General Philosophy in Two Parts... (London: 1676), pt. 1, bk. 3, ch. 3, pp. 440-508 Latin
Gale (1628–1678) was an English educationalist, nonconformist and a reformed philosopher in the Platonic tradition.
Le Blanc de Beaulieu, Louis – Theological Theses Published at Various Times in the Academy of Sedan 3rd ed. tr. by AI by Colloquia Scholastica (1675; London, 1683) Latin
Divine concurrence and cooperation with the freedom of human will can be reconciled 599-611
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Various distinctions and acceptances of ‘grace’ 695
. pt. 2, Reformed Schools 709
. pt. 3 Roman School: Sufficient and efficacious; harmony of human liberty with the efficacy of grace 718
. pt. 4, Protestants: Sufficient and efficacious; harmony of human liberty with the efficacy of grace 750-56
Turretin, Francis – Institutes of Elenctic Theology, tr. George M. Giger, ed. James Dennison Jr. (1679–1685; P&R, 1992), vol. 1, 6th Topic
4. ‘Is providence occupied only in the conservation and sustentation of things; or also in their government (through which God Himself acts and efficaciously concurs with them by a concourse not general and indifferent, but particular, specific and immediate)? We deny the former and affirm the latter, against the Jesuits, Socinians and Remonstrants.’ 501
5. ‘Does God concur with second causes not only by a particular and simultaneous, but also by a previous concourse? We affirm.’ 505
6. ‘How can the concourse of God be reconciled with the contingency and liberty of second causes—especially of the will of man.’ 511
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1700’s
Venema, Herman – pp. 403-15 in Translation of Hermann Venema’s inedited Institutes of Theology tr. Alexander W. Brown (d. 1787; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1850), ch. 25, Providence of God
Venema (1697-1787) was a professor at Franeker. Venema “maintained the fundamental line of confessional orthodoxy without drawing heavily on any of the newer philosophies… and maintained a fairly centrist Reformed position. Venema… evidence[s] the inroads of a rationalistic model…” – Richard Muller
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2000’s
Feser, Edward – ‘Conservation & Concurrence’ in Five Proofs of the Existence of God (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2017), ch. 6, ‘God & the World’, pp. 232-38
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Quotes
Order of
Rutherford
Gillespie
Baxter
Carini
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1600’s
Samuel Rutherford
Lex Rex... (1644; Edinburgh: Ogle, 1843)
“All the acts necessary for war-making are, in an eminent manner, ascribed to God, as (1) The Lord fights for his own people. (2) The Lord scattered the enemies. (3) The Lord slew Og, king of Bashan. (4) The battle is the Lord’s. (5) The victory [is] the Lord’s; therefore Israel never fought a battle. So Deut. 32[:10], The Lord alone led his people — the Lord led them in the wilderness — their bow and their sword gave them not the land. God wrought all their works for them (Isa. 26:12), therefore Moses led them not; therefore the people went not on their own legs through the wilderness; therefore the people never shot an arrow, never drew a sword. It follows not.
God did all these as the first, eminent, principal and efficacious pre-determinator of the creature (though this Arminian and popish prelate [John Maxwell] mind not so to honour God).”
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“…for as no power given to man to murder his brother is of God, so no power to suffer his brother to be murdered is of God; and no power to suffer himself, a fortiori, far less can be from God. Here I speak not of physical power, for if free will be the creature of God, a physical power to acts which, in relation to God’s law, are sinful, must be from God.”
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George Gillespie
Works, vol. 2, Treatise of Miscellany Questions, ch. 12, p. 64
“…and what is that scientia media [middle knowledge] which the Jesuits glory of as a new light, but the very old error of natural men, which looks upon things contingent as not decreed and determined by the will of God?”
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Richard Baxter
Catholic Theology (London: White, 1675), sect. 10, ‘Of Natural & Moral Power as Foreseen’, pp. 37-38
“206. Human (and all created) power is dependent, and is not properly a power to do anything, but on supposition of God’s emanant support and concurse, as He is the first Cause of Nature.
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212. It is no true power ad hoc [to this], which is put to overcome a greater opposing power. We never had power to overcome God, or to act against his pre-moving pre-determination (as Bradwardine truly says).”
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2000’s
Joel Carini
“Consider causality. Here are four philosophical positions you could hold:
Only God has causal power. (Occasionalism)
Nothing has causal power, things just happen to move in certain ways onto which the mind projects generalizations. (Humeanism)
Secondary causality exists; things other than God have causal power. (Thomism)
Finite things have causal power; drop the bit about God. (Secular Aristotelianism)
From a presuppositionalist perspective, one will think that, while the wisdom of this age led modern philosophers to these four positions, the Christian thinker can find a fifth. But the problem is there aren’t any other options.
And, I’ve watched presuppositionalists try to solve this one. They almost always cite favorably David Hume’s skepticism about causality. Then they proceed to occasionalism, joining arms together with Medieval Islamic philosopher Al-Ghazali, and modern (Christian) philosophers Malebranche, Berkeley, and Leibniz.
However, in my view, the idea that things have causal power (3 & 4) is the superior view of causality, for a number of reasons… This position is simply better able to explain the world around us. The other positions are worse, or even absurd. (Imagine thinking that fire does not have the power to burn wood. God just jigs it up to look that way.)
Presuppositionalism does not result in avoiding philosophy. It results in unstudied, tendentious philosophical conclusions.”
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Historical
On the Post-Reformation
On the Reformed
Articles
Ruler, J.A. Han van – ‘New Philosophy to Old Standards. Voetius’ Vindication of Divine Concurrence & Secondary Causality’ NAK/DRCH 71 (1991), pp. 58–91
Goudriaan, Aza – ch. 3, ‘The Providence of God, Secondary Causality, & Related Topics’ in Reformed Orthodoxy and Philosophy, 1625-1750 : Gisbertus Voetius, Petrus Van Mastricht & Anthonius Driessen Pre (Boston: Brill, 2006), pp. 143-242
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Book
Ruler, J.A. Han van – The Crisis of Causality. Voetius & Descartes on God, Nature & Change (Brill, 1995) 340 pp. ToC
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In Romanism
Articles
Tupikowski, Jerzy – ‘Banezianism’ in Universal Encyclopedia of Philosophy (PEF) 2 pp.
Manzo, Silvia – ‘Efficient Causality & Divine Concurrence in the Disputationes Metaphysicae of Francisco Suárez & in the Colombricense’s Commentary to Aristotle’s Physics’ Patristica et Mediævalia, 31 (2010), pp. 29-42 Ref
Abstract: “In Francisco Suárez’ Disputationes Metaphysicae and the Coimbran commentaries on Aristotle’s works are to be found critical and innovative stances toward Aristotle and Aquinas. As transitional exponents of late Scholasticism at the turn of seventeenth century, their works are relevant case studies to understanding early-modern natural philosophy. Efficient causation is a central issue to such understanding. A particularly controversial point of the views on efficient causation in this background was the exact meaning of divine concurrence with secondary causes. This paper aims to explore Suarez’ (part 1) and the Coimbrans’ (part 2) accounts of efficient causation and divine concurrence in the context of Thomist concurrentism.”
Sangiacomo, Andrea – ‘Divine Action & God’s Immutability: a Historical Case Study on how to Resist Occasionalism’ European Journal of Philosophy of Religion, 7/4 (Summer 2015), pp. 115-135
Sangiacomo is an associate professor at the faculty of philosophy at the University of Groningen (NL).
Abstract: “Today’s debates present ‘occasionalism’ as the position that any satisfying account of divine action must avoid. In this paper I discuss how a leading [French] Cartesian author of the end of the seventeenth century, Pierre-Sylvain Régis [1632–1707], attempted to avoid occasionalism. Régis’s case is illuminating because it stresses both the difficulties connected with the traditional alternatives to occasionalism (so-called ‘concurrentism’ and ‘mere-conservationism’) and also those aspects embedded in the occasionalist position that should be taken into due account. The paper focuses on Régis’s own account of secondary causation in order to show how the challenge of avoiding occasionalism can lead to the development of new accounts of divine action.”
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Quote
Andreas Beck, ch. 13, ‘God, Creation, and Providence in Post-Reformation Reformed Theology’, p. 206 in eds. Lehner, Muller, Roeber, The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Theology, 1600-1800 (Oxford, 2016)
“Another issue concerned substantial forms. Here, Voetius and others defended a neo-Aristotelian concept because they found it to be more compatible with the Physica Mosaica [Mosaic physics] than early modern alternatives.
The substantial forms could not only explain the classification of ‘kinds’ in the biblical creation account, but also constituted the internal principles of activity in secondary causes. In contrast, the Cartesian mechanistic worldview with its rejection of substantial form seemed to create more difficulties than it might solve. In particular, it implied a denial of genuine secondary causality, leading either to occasionalism or Spinozistic pantheism, as Voetius noted with remarkable foresight (Van Ruler 1995; Goudriaan 2006, 113-33; Beck 2007, 65-69).”
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Latin Articles
1500’s
Calvin, John – An Instruction Against the Fanatical & Furious Sect of the Libertines, which Call Themselves ‘The Spiritual Ones’ in The Smaller Works of John Calvin… (1563)
ch. 13, pp. 184-188
ch. 14, pp. 189-200
ch. 15, pp. 200-205
ch. 16, pp. 205-212
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1600’s
Voet, Gisbert – Syllabus of Theological Problems (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 1, tract 3 Abbr.
Acts of Providence: of Premotion & Concursus
The Mode of Operating
About Rational Creatures
About Man (Animal & Civil Life, Eternal Life, Marriage,
. Public Things, Wars)
Physical Acts Before & After Conversion
Moral Acts around Salvation
About Irrational Creatures
An Indirect Act, or of Permission
Further are these
Grebenitz, Elias – On the Concurrent Being of Beings, a Metaphysical Disputation on the Concursus of the First Cause with a Second Cause (Frankfurt, 1669)
Grebenitz (1627-1689) was a reformed professor of logic, metaphysics and theology at Frankfurt.
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Related Pages
Which Philosophy Should be Used?
Relation of Theology & Philosophy
Reformed vs. Aquinas: Providence
Reformed Freedom of Choice vs. Determinism
Medieval Theology & Philosophy