Biblical Critical Theory
The physicalist challenge to belief in the soul also challenges the widespread belief that human beings are causal exceptions to nature, that we have a contracausal free will (or libertarian free will) that transcends natural laws.
Christopher Watkin • Biblical Critical Theory
Correlates with the book, The Soul. Determinism = every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions with the laws of nature.
In creation my existence is contingent on the action of another, and I exist only through his ongoing act of upholding me (and everything else in the universe) "by his powerful word" (Heb 1:3), but this reliance does not make me a puppet. In sin I am "dead" and in thrall to the world, the flesh, and the devil, while still being
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God’s will and my will. Yes and yes.
Richard Pratt explains the relation between divine sovereignty and human responsibility:
God's control of things is not contrary to the responsibility of man. It is the very foundation of it. If God were not in control He could not hold man responsible. Man is accountable to God because God is sovereign; he should obey God because God is in control
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Our responsibility is to God because God is sovereign.
This crucial sequence (Noah found favor, and Noah's righteousness and shipbuilding obedience flowed from that prior gift, or to use Augustine's language, God crowns his own gifts in Noah) is an example of a figure that we will see repeated time and again in the pages of the Bible. The great majority of ancient pagan religions, as well as the assump
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This is a sad, impossible view of God’s grace and ultimately futile. We can never be good enough to earn God’s grace.
What a charmer. Lamech's behavior is a textbook example of what Augustine calls the libido dominandi, variously translated as the "desire to dominate" or the "will to power." Libido dominandi is raw violence-unprovoked, unrestricted, unconflicted. It is the characteristic driving force of the earthly city, "which, when it s
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Absolute power corrupts absolutely - or even the desire for absolute power
So in the same way that the doctrine of the image of God both exalts humanity (because human beings alone are in the image of God) and humbles humanity (because we are not gods, but rather the image of God)