Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Concurrence (of providence)

God's working in, with, and through the ordinary activity of creatures and their causes, so that every event is fully the creature's act and fully under God's governance.

Latin concursus, 'a running together'; also called 'cooperation'.

Genesis 50:20 (one act, two intentions); Philippians 2:12–13 ('work out your own salvation … for it is God who works in you'); Isaiah 10:5–15 (Assyria as God's rod, yet culpable); Acts 2:23.

Systematised in the scholastic distinction between primary cause (God) and secondary causes (creatures): God acts at a different ontological level, upholding and moving every secondary cause, so the creature's act is 100% the creature's and 100% under God, not divided 50/50. The tradition adds that God concurs in the natural act of a sinful choice while the sinfulness (the defect) is the creature's alone.

Concurrence lets Scripture say both 'the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart' and 'Pharaoh hardened his heart' about the same events without contradiction.

Thomist 'physical premotion', Molinist 'simultaneous concurrence' via middle knowledge, and Arminian 'general concurrence with permission' give different accounts; open theism limits concurrence over free acts.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.