Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Providence

God's continual upholding of all things in being (conservation) and his governing of all things toward their ends (governance) — the doctrine that God did not create and step away.

Latin providentia, 'foresight, provision'; Greek pronoia.

Psalm 104; 145:15–16; Job 38–41; Matthew 6:26–30; 10:29–31; Acts 17:25, 28; Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3; Ephesians 1:11 ('works all things according to the counsel of his will').

Distinguished from creation (the initial act) as conservation and governance (the ongoing work); developed against Deism (an absent God) and debated between the Reformed (meticulous, all-encompassing providence), Arminian (providence that grants libertarian freedom), and open-theist (God responsive to a partly open future) accounts.

Includes God's provision, his permission and overruling of evil for good (Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:28), and his ordering of history toward the kingdom — without making God the author of sin.

The extent and mode of providence, and its compatibility with human freedom and with the problem of evil, are debated across traditions.

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