Perfect Chaos

The Blog of Author Steven Colborne


Primary and Secondary Causes

Welcome to another post in my Praise and Prose series. The series looks at our use of language, especially in matters of faith and spirituality, and how that language might change in order to better reflect reality.

Today I would like to begin a discussion around the causes of human activity. The implications of this in terms of language will be discussed in a subsequent post.

I would like to refer readers to a short post I wrote back in 2018, in which I discussed primary and secondary causes. The idea is that for every action a creature does, there is a primary cause (which is God) and a secondary cause (which is the creature). While the Calvinist I quoted in the post argued that there is freedom of the will in secondary causes, I argued that secondary causes are entirely under the sovereign control of God, and there is no freedom whatsoever, even in secondary causes.

To read the post, click here.

The idea of primary and secondary causes is central to this blog series. But there is little point in repeating myself, and the linked article contains more than enough substance for today’s reflection, so I won’t elaborate further today.

I invite comments below, but please keep your comments concise and relevant to the subject of primary and secondary causes, and to the ideas discussed in the linked post, otherwise they may be deleted.

Thank you to everyone who has engaged with the beginnings of the Praise and Prose series this week, it’s been good fun. I may write a post over the weekend summarising what’s been covered so far, but in any case I plan to be back next week with new posts in the series which I am brainstorming and mapping out on an ongoing basis.

Stay safe, stay positive, God bless you, and have a good weekend.

(Image by www_slon_pics from Pixabay)



Steven Colborne

About Me

Hello, I’m Steven and I’m a philosopher and author based in London. My main purpose as a writer is to encourage discussion about God. I write about a wide variety of subjects related to philosophical theology, including divine sovereignty, the nature of God, suffering, interfaith dialogue and more. My mantra: Truth heals.

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