Is The God-World Relationship Based on Unilateral or Reciprocal Causation?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.v10i4.2621Abstract
In this article, I set forth my understanding of reciprocal causality between God and finite entities in three stages, beginning with Aristotle’s analysis of change in this world. Afterwards, I examine the way in which Aquinas used the causal scheme of Aristotle in his Christian understanding of the God-world relationship. Finally, I indicate how both Aristotle’s philosophy and Aquinas’s approach to the God-world relationship should be rethought so as to be more in line with contemporary scientific understanding of the evolution of life from non-life and the emergence of progressively higher-order life-systems out of lower-order life-systems within creation.References
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