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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Without Flaws, But Still A Challenging, Edifying Read, November 24, 2005
This review is from: The Benefits of Providence: A New Look at Divine Sovereignty (Paperback)
I have a bad habit of waiting a week or two after finishing a book before writing a review. I tend to do this with books that are particularly challenging to me as I like to allow what I have learned to resonate in my mind and heart for a little while before committing those thoughts to paper (or pixels, as the case may be). The drawback, of course, is that I tend to forget details as time goes on! The Benefits of Providence by James Spiegel was one of those books that I saw on my desk every day for the past two weeks but have not attempted to review until today. Part of my reluctance in reviewing it was that in some ways I was overwhelmed by the book as it delved into topics which I feel particularly poorly equipped to discuss.
Subtitled A New Look at Divine Sovereignty, this book seeks to examine and explain divine providence from the Bible. The author attempts to answer such difficult questions as: "Does God actively determine every event that comes to pass? Or does he passively allow some events to happen?" Much of the book is set against the claims of those who hold to Open Theism and who would claim that God does not determine every event and that he does passively allow certain events to happen. Spiegel teaches a classical, Augustinian understanding of providence, affirming that God has exhaustive knowledge of the future and that he knows, controls and directs all that comes to pass. Along the way Spiegel discusses art, science, philosophy, emotion and evil. The book concludes with several moral and devotional applications for what has been taught.
The purpose of the book is to "show that the doctrine of providence, properly understood, is not only biblically sound but conceptually enriching and personally edifying." The author provides both a defense of the biblical, Augustinian view and a refutation of the Open Theistic position. "To see God," the author concludes, "as utterly sovereign provides numerous benefits to us in diverse domains, ranging from art and science to ethics and philosophical theology...The doctrine of providence must help us make sense of Scripture and human history, as well as our intuitions about beauty, goodness, and our deepest fears, desires and hopes."
While the book was certainly challenging and while it stretched my understanding of divine providence in many ways, it was not without its faults. There was one moment that I found almost comical as it seemed so far out of place in a book of this type. When discussing the virtues of people we most admire, Spiegel writes, "From the apostle Paul and Justin Martyr to Martin Luther and Mother Teresa, all of our heroes attained that status because of their struggles against and in the midst of evil." One of those people stands out as not belonging in a group of great theologians! Beyond Spiegel's seemingly obligatory mention of Mother Teresa, I had a few concerns about his understanding of the value and importance of human suffering, and particularly in his teaching on the beatific vision, wherein human suffering becomes valuable because of the direct knowledge of God it imparts to us. Aspects of the teaching of art and beauty will require some more thought on my part, but initially they made me uncomfortable (which is not necessarily a bad thing).
Looking back on this book two weeks later there is much I remember and much that made me grow. There is also much that requires a second reading for me to fully understand. My grasp of philosophy is tenuous at best and this made some of what Spiegel wrote about a little beyond my expertise. This is a deeply philosophical book and is not always easy to read and understand, even though it is very well written. If a proper understanding of divine providence is as important as Spiegel claims, and I believe he is right to suggest that it provides benefits to almost every area of life, it is a topic that ought to be near and dear to the heart of every Christian. This is particularly true in an age like ours where this doctrine is under attack. Despite a few concerns I really have no trouble recommending this book.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Isn't God Almighty ?, October 29, 2007
This review is from: The Benefits of Providence: A New Look at Divine Sovereignty (Paperback)
In this book is so much truth in defense of the old, accepted truths of the gospel. More to the point, Spiegel affirms that 'when you get down to it, of course, the issue at hand is not just the maintenance of sound doctrine, but also the nature of God'. He approaches the task at hand immediately, and plainly refers to Augustine, Luther, Calvin and Jonathan Edwards in his opening presentation. Their views are accurately portrayed, and correctly summarized as being non-contradictory.
He quotes Hasker, who assumes the following: 'it is clear that God's foreknowledge cannot be used either to bring about the occurrence of a foreknown event or to prevent such an event from occurring...one might say, by the time God knows something will happen, it is too late either to bring about its happening or to prevent it from happening.' God, Time, & Knowledge pp. 57-58
This modern view, propagated by the proponents of process theolgoy, is closely connected to a low view of God's sovereignty. In this we find that man is negligent in not giving God all the glory. This work goes a long way to prove that view faulty.
When assessing the two views of human freedom, that of libertarianism and compatibility, Spiegel's defense of the compatibilitist's view is ably done. 'Peter's freedom consisted in that he was not externally compelled (though circumstances presumably made FAITHFUL action more difficult).' p 71 Spiegel asserts further, 'What I have tried to show is that there are good biblical reasons for believing in the compatibility of divine sovereignty and human freedom.' p 72
If as a believer you have struggled with some strains of the following beliefs (because fellow Christians believe, as do these proponents, in the inerrancy of Scripture) that you cannot wrap your head around, you need no longer concern yourself, for Spiegel destroys and destructs fallacies proposed by insisting on proper theological distinctions:
1) Conditional Statements:
'If My people will turn from their wicked ways, then...'
2) Divine Regretting and Relenting:
God grieves over certain events such as His creation of human beings (Gen 6:6) and His making Saul king (1 Sam 15:11).
3) Petitionary Prayer:
'Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find.'
'You do not have for you do not ask.'
4) Divine Ignorance and Error:
Biblical narratives that depict God as learning new truths on various occasions, such as when He says to Abraham, 'Now I know you fear God...'
These all are misrepresented biblically whereby the omniscience of God and omnipotence of Heaven are brought to nought by so-called 'modern evangelicals', whereas Spiegel's view of the 'Benefits of Providence', are enlightening:
'This (Augustinian) perspective serves as a corrective to the misleading language of "divine intervention" in the world. It is true that God might alert us to some danger...But often God is thought to intervene in the sense that His activity in our lives is somehow only intermittent and exceptional. Some people regard miracles in this way, as instances of exceptional divine activity in the world. Even more common is the view that miracles demonstrate God's presence and power beyond what is proven in nature. But making an exception to nature's ordinary operations is no more difficult for God than maintaining regularity...Once we recognize that the cosmos is a constant divine creation (Heb 1:3), nature's operations - regular or not, and pleasing or not - must also be recognized as following from the activity of the wise and omnipotent God. A proper doctrine of providence displaces this notion of mechanistic causal necessity with purposeful divine direction. Consequently, both nature's regularities and miraculous events are seen to be equally divinely intended.' pp. 89-90
As noted open theist Clark Pinnock would like to think: '...the suffering or pathos of God is a strong biblical theme...God is not cool and collected but is deeply involved and can be wounded.' The Openness Of God: A Biblical Challenge To The Traditional Understanding of God p 118 Thus terrible confusion sets in as to the true nature of God. Richard Muller protested to this view of the divine passibility of God, correctly defending the contrary, arguing for the divine impassibility of God:'What is more, in the usages found in the Christian tradition, immutability, or indeed, impassibility (where the term is actually used), in no way implies an absence of relatedness, love, longsuffering, compassion, mercy, and so forth. Impassibility as attributed to God in the Christian tradition, and specifically Medieval, Scholastic and Protestant thought, indicates not historic notion of apathy, but an absence of mutation, distress, or any other sort of negative passions.' Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics 3:310-311
After looking at the historical views, divine passabilism and impassibilism, Spiegel proposes his own alternative that seeks to incorporate the insights and avoid the major shortcomings of each: divine omnipathism. This is the idea that God experiences all emotions eternally and immutably. It is in this proposed third view he veers from historic Christianity.
'Such divine 'emotions' will certainly be free from the imperfections of human emotions.' David McKay, The Bond Of Love p 65
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How Providence Matters, March 28, 2006
This review is from: The Benefits of Providence: A New Look at Divine Sovereignty (Paperback)
Dozens of books have been published in recent years debating the extent of God's sovereignty and knowledge of future events. Few of these works, however, examine the far-reaching implications of the views they propose. In The Benefits of Providence philosopher James Spiegel fills in this gap by applying the Augustinian view of providence to several important areas of philosophical and practical theology.
Distinguishing between high (Augustinian, Simple Divine Foreknowledge, Molinism) and low (Process and Openness Theology) views of providence, Dr. Spiegel begins by explaining the core ideas of each of these positions. He then proceeds to contrast the biblical cases and explanatory power of the Open view with the Augustinian view, arguing that in each case the Augustinian view of providence is on solid ground and the Open view is not. Thus he contends that God has complete sovereignty, exhaustive foreknowledge, does not take risks, and that God's determination is compatible with the moral responsibility of human beings.
Having laid the foundation for why the Augustinian view is best, Dr. Spiegel applies this high view of providence to several areas in which he sees particular benefits. He begins with looking at the world as divine art, first through the divine conservation of the cosmos. This doctrine, he shows, has important implications for understanding natural laws, miracles, and art. As an explanation of divine art, he puts forward the E-C aesthetic model- "that the cosmos is an expression of divine emotion and a communication of God's eternal ideas." (105)
Dr. Spiegel then applies his high view of providence to the practice of science, specifically showing its implications for the problem of induction, the origins debate, and the problem of consciousness. Subsequently, he dives into the issue of divine emotion. While historically those who hold high views of providence tend to believe in God's impassibility, and conversely those of a low view tend to believe in His passibility, Dr. Spiegel seeks middle ground. He proposes that God is omnipathic, experiencing of all emotions eternally.
The problem of evil and suffering is an important issue in these discussions, and so Dr. Spiegel turns to it next. After explaining why several of the more popular theodicies fail, he makes the case that the "Greater Good Theology" is the most biblically grounded and practical. Essentially this entails that all suffering exists for a purpose. The book concludes with moral and devotional applications, examining the implications for virtues such as faith and humility and for disciplines such as prayer and evangelism.
One sign of a good writer and thinker (in my view) is that the author anticipates his reader's questions. This happened several times as I read this book, particularly in discussing divine omnipathos, and though I wasn't always fully satisfied with the answers; I appreciate Dr. Spiegel's ability to anticipate possible objections. This is particularly important as his work sails in several almost uncharted theological waters
The Benefits of Providenceis an important and stimulating inquiry into philosophical theology. Though some will find its academic rigor challenging, most will find James Spiegel's clarity and passion for biblically based philosophy extraordinary. Though this is a significant work in the debate about God's sovereignty, I think it's more significant for those who hold to the Augustinian view. Regardless of whether we agree with every point, Dr. Spiegel has challenged us to apply our theology more widely and deeply.
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