Divine Providence A History

Alexander Carson lived in an age that was turning away from the revelation of God in Scripture. The dominant philosophy of the times sought to replace the knowledge of the personal, sovereign and provident God of Scripture with a 'more intelligent belief' in the impersonal laws of nature (which are, of course, nothing but the physical laws by which God usually conducts his government of the world). If God exists - and that was a big 'if' - then he is a God who is far removed from the events of every-day life. But truth and Scripture teach that all physical laws have their effect from the immediate agency of God's almighty power. In his works of providence God preserves and governs all his creatures and all their actions. 'In him we live, and move, and have our being' (Acts 17:28). Although Christians recognize this doctrine of Providence, they tend to overlook it in practice. In so doing they lose, in a great measure, that advantage which a constant and deep impression of this truth is calculated to give. In this book, Alexander Carson takes the reader through the Scriptures and points to instances of God's providence that will provide comfort for all true believers.

The national radio host and bestselling author of The American Miracle reveals the happy accidents, bizarre coincidences, and flat-out miracles that continue to shape America’s destiny. “A hopeful message for our troubled times . . . Michael Medved has an eye for a story, and a preternatural gift for telling it in beguiling ways.”—Joseph J. Ellis, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winning author of Founding Brothers Has God withdrawn his special blessing from the United States? Americans ponder that painful question in troubled times, as we did during the devastation of the Civil War and after the assassinations of the ’60s, and as we do in our present polarization. Yet somehow—on battlefields, across western wilderness, and in raucous convention halls—astounding events have reliably advanced America, restoring faith in the Republic’s providential protection. In this provocative historical narrative, Michael Medved brings to life ten haunting tales that reveal this purposeful pattern, including: • A near-fatal carriage accident forces Lincoln’s secretary of state into a canvas-and-steel neck brace that protects him from a would-be assassin’s knife thrusts, allowing him two years later to acquire Alaska for the United States. • A sudden tidal wave of Russian Jewish immigration, be­ginning in 1881, coincides with America’s rise to world leadership, fulfilling a biblical promise that those bless­ing Abraham’s children will themselves be blessed. • Campaigning for president, Theodore Roosevelt takes a bullet in the chest, but a folded speech in his jacket pocket slows its progress and saves his life. • At the Battle of Midway, U.S. planes get lost over empty ocean and then miraculously reconnect for five minutes of dive-bombing that wrecks Japan’s fleet, convincing even enemy commanders that higher powers intervened against them. • A behind-the-scenes “conspiracy of the pure of heart” by Democratic leaders forces a gravely ill FDR to replace his sitting vice president—an unstable Stalinist—with future White House great Harry Truman. These and other little-known stories build on themes of The American Miracle, Medved’s bestseller about America’s remarkable rise. The confident heroes and stubborn misfits in these pages shared a common faith in a master plan, which continues to unfold in our time. God’s Hand on America con­firms that the founders were right about America’s destiny to lead and enlighten the world.

In Medieval Theories of Divine Providence 1250-1350 Mikko Posti presents a historical and philosophical study of the doctrine of divine providence in 13th- and 14th-century Latin philosophical theology.

In Divine Providence Swedenborg explains why it is that we cannot always see God's hand in our chaotic world. Why tragedy and war are allowed to happen and how these things relate to us. If God were to remove all tragedies from our lives of what worth would free will be?

In this important volume, Joost Hengstmengel examines the doctrine of divine providence and how it served as explanation and justification in economic debates in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries throughout Western Europe. The author discusses five different areas in which God was associated with the economy: international trade, division of labour, value and price, self-interest, and poverty and inequality. Ultimately, it is shown that theological ideas continued to influence economic thought beyond the Medieval period, and that the science of economics as we know it today has theological origins. Interdisciplinary in nature, this book will be of interest to advanced students and researchers in the history of economic thought, the history of theology, philosophy and intellectual history.