Creation and Providence form a beautiful complementary pair of statements that can be formulated to describe the status of the entire universe, human nature as part of that universe, or Christian believers as part of humankind.
Both Creation and Providence have their exaggerated forms. The essential teaching of Creation is the reality of the creatures and their significance to the Creator. The exaggeration of human Creation leads to a notion of the absolute, autonomous existence of humans without God, or dependence on God. In secular terms this is exaggerated into existentialism.
The essential teaching of the Christian doctrine of Providence is the sustaining, loving rule of God moment-by-moment in the world. In modern terms, this view is reduced to naturalism. Naturalism sees the universe as a closed, self-determining system. The system may contain deterministic processes, accidents, and chaotic processes, but no purpose or direction; it is a vast machine running to nowhere. Humans are merely a part of this vast machine, or, as in Buddhism, merely role-players on an eternal stage.
C. P. Snow's The Two Cultures described a dualism in modern life between the literary culture and the technical or scientific culture. Existentialism has been expressed mostly by the literary culture, the "magicians" trying to find a way to exalt human distinctiveness over nature (a 20th century form of Romanticism). Naturalism has been expressed mostly by scientists: the "technicians", intent to place human nature fully within the mechanism of nature (reductionism). Neither of these approaches has been very successful at providing a description of human nature that is at home in the universe, yet not oppressed by that "universe's unfeeling immensity" (in Jacques Monod's phrase).
The issues addressed in this dilogic are wide-reaching, and they also can be described as different views of human nature in different religions. Christianity and Judaism have a strong sense of the freedom and individuality of persons (because of the Biblical concept of people as created in the image of God). This is not the case in Buddhism, which sees the individual merely as a role-player in a drama; both the role and the drama are beyond his/her control. A dilogic for Creation and Providence stated in these terms might be summarized like this:
Creation and Providence (Religious Views) | |
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A: Justice is real. Humans, created in the image of God,
are truly able to will and to judge and act into the world, and hence
they are responsible for their actions. Individuals are agents who
make choices that have consequences in the world. |
B: We live by grace. God is our righteousness; we bear treasure in earthen vessels; we are not able to achieve justice and righteousness by the Law or by our own works. We must be humble patients and accept the gifts of God with the empty hands of faith. We cannot take any credit for our achievements, all is by grace, God's mercy and favor which we did not earn or deserve. |
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-B: Works of the Law: Humans carry the burden of blame and shame on their shoulders; they are ultimately guilty and responsible. Religious legalism: we are guilty before God the Lawgiver. Atheist legalism: the absurd existential tragedy of life, in which individuals feel responsible but adrift in an amoral universe. |
-A: Detachment: Buddhism: The Bhagavad Gita teaches that we are to play our roles within the traditional framework of castes and accept our destiny fatalistically; life as role-playing; the individual is nothing and nothing really matters. This may be comforting to some but it is demeaning; a false humility. |
The relationship of God to Human Nature is more complex and interactive than the two exaggerations, Western legalism and Eastern fatalism. Humans are both Agents and Patients; they exist under God with true justice and true grace. Such a balanced view is unavailable to those who do not believe in the personal, good God of the Bible.
A caveat: since we are creatures, we can only comprehend the creation from our creaturely vantage point. In dealing with such a profound subject as God's relationship with the creation, "we see through a glass darkly" (I Cor. 13:12).