Well, I can, with certainty, say that this reading was much harder to follow than what we've read so far. Full of fluffy language where, at times, some of the numerous trips to dictionary.com could've easily been avoided by using much simpler synonyms. Full of seemingly abstract concepts, I sometimes felt the only one who could've thoroughly understood the reading, was the author himself. Nevertheless I believe I was able to grasp, at the very least, the overall gist. John Calvin was a french theologian from the 16th century. When the Protestant reformation was in full motion. Tillech explains Calvin's theories on theological philosophy. Covering such things as providence (the omniscient care and guidance by God), predestination, capitalism and the relationships between church and state.
Early on, he explains that providence is a thing, and predestination is a the subsequent effect of providence. That everyones existence and life conditions were given to them intentionally by god to fulfill certain effects known only to God himself.....
I agree that it was a hard read and I had trouble unerstanding it at times as well. To add to your second paragraph, basically all things have already been decided upon by God.
ReplyDelete