Learning Theology with the Church Fathers by Christopher A. Hall

Author:Christopher A. Hall [Hall, Christopher A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2009-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

Christian Disposition and Divine Providence

In On Providence, a work composed during a painful exile at the end of his life, Chrysostom pondered the mysteries of God’s providence. He often found his thoughts drifting to the great patriarch of Israel, Abraham. What could have been more inexplicable and horrific than God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, the very child of the promise? What, Chrysostom asked himself, enabled Abraham to respond in obedience to God’s incomprehensible command? Abraham’s disposition, cultivated and trained over the years, enabled him to willingly obey God’s strange and dark command. Abraham’s receptive and responsive disposition became a central focus in Chrysostom’s own understanding of providence and how human beings are to respond to God’s ordering of their lives.

In chapter ten of On Providence Chrysostom portrays the scene as God calls to Abraham to prevent the sacrifice of Isaac: “For the voice did not simply call ‘Abraham,’ but ‘Abraham, Abraham,’ through the repetition of his name restraining and arresting his intention that was focused solely on the command, so complete was his absorption on the command.”4

Chrysostom’s point is that Abraham’s intention, his proairesis, was entirely concentrated on obeying God’s command. Although God’s command appeared to be diametrically opposed to the promise God had already made to Abraham and to God’s character as loving and compassionate, Abraham was still prepared to obey. Why? “He didn’t meddle in God’s affairs.”5

Abraham’s ability to respond in obedience to God’s seemingly nonsensical command did not arise in a vacuum. In fact, much of what Chrysostom says in On Providence concerns his understanding of how God works in human beings to produce Abraham’s obedient response. A number of significant themes intertwine in Chrysostom’s explanation of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac. Chief among them is Chrysostom’s understanding of human disposition and how disposition inclines the human will toward good or evil. The larger question of human evil is, of course, intimately related to the choice facing Abraham. Will he obey God, or will evil evidence itself in a perverted or disobedient choice or proairesis?

Proairesis is an extremely rich word with an interesting constellation of meanings and nuances. Its first definition refers to the human faculty of free choice. In addition, it refers to human intention, motive and disposition.6 Chrysostom consistently denies that human evil is the result of God’s action. Nor is its source to be found in the nature of created matter or the human body. Creation itself is good, as the writer of Genesis clearly declares. The beauty and utility of creation demonstrate this inherent, created goodness. Evil erupts, as it might in Abraham’s response to God’s command, as human disposition and choice combine to violate God’s desire.

Church fathers contend that disposition and choice (proairesis) are in themselves gifts from God, key properties and privileges of human nature. The problem, as Chrysostom presents matters, is that human disposition and choice are corrupted by sin. Chrysostom, however, like most Eastern fathers, does not see this corruption as completely debilitating human freedom.

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