Human Freedom and God's Providence : Is There Conflict? Conspectus : The Journal of the South African Theological Seminary, Volume 8, Issue 09, Sep 2009, p. 62 - 76

Abstract

How can we reconcile human freedom with God's providence? The key, in my view, is bottom-up and top-down causality. These particular terms state that all events in the world are the result of some previous event, or events. Accordingly, all of reality is already in a sense predetermined or pre-existent and, therefore, nothing new can come into existence. But how does this impact on our actions? Are we predetermined to walk a specific path and, if so, how is this accomplished by God without violating our human freedom?