Purpose and Providence: Taking Soundings in Western Thought, Literature and Theology

by Vernon White

Do our lives have purpose? Despite the rise of secularism, we are still confronted by a sense of meaning and direction in the events of history and our own lives - something which is beyond us and not our own creation/imagination. Using the novels of Thomas Hardy and Julian Barnes, Vernon White tracks this belief in intellectual history and tests its resilience in modern literature. Both novelists portray modern and late-modern scenarios where, although the idea of an objective purpose has been deconstructed, it still haunts the protagonists.

Using literature as the starting point, the discussion moves on to an exploration of this belief in its theological form, through the doctrine of providence. White critically reviews the classic canon of providence and its pressure points - the problems in divine causality, the metaphysical assumptions required in its acceptance, and the contradictions to be found between God's purpose and the metanarratives of history. Using Barth and Frei, White suggests new ways of re-imagining divine providence to take account of these issues. The credibility of this re-defined providence is then tested against scripture, experience and praxis, with the result being an understanding of providence that does not rely on empirical progress.

184 pages, Hardcover

First published November 19, 2015

Reviews

[Tyler Horton]

It's a nice book, but I don't think it's a great book. In some ways it feels a bit 'grab-bag-ey'. There are a couple of parts that I think do valuable things (showing the persistence of an assumption of purpose/providence and some refreshed reflections on providence/purpose), but it doesn't feel that they are really integrated all that well. The treatments of various thinkers are pretty short, both philosophical and theological, so you need to have a decent grasp of them before coming to this. But if you have a pretty good grasp of those thinkers already...you may not need to come here. What the book does is bring a number of things together to face issues of providence and if you are invested in those questions it's worth a look. But it's definitely more 'essay' than 'tome' (and is so consciously).