Posted on 04/23/2020 5:50:18 PM PDT by marshmallow
To claim that “God did not do that” because we did it is simply a category mistake.
Last week, Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, made a rather interesting theological observation. Commenting on the progress that his state has made in fighting the coronavirus, and praising the concrete efforts of medical personnel and ordinary citizens, he said, “The number is down because we brought the number down. God did not do that. Faith did not do that.” I won’t waste a lot of time exploring the hubris of that remark, which should be obvious to anyone. I might recommend, out of pastoral concern, that the governor read the first part of Genesis chapter eleven.
What I will do instead is explain the basic intellectual confusion that undergirds Cuomo’s assertion, one that, I fear, is shared even by many believers. The condition for the possibility of the governor’s declaration is the assumption that God is one competitive cause among many, one actor jostling for position and time upon the stage with a coterie of other actors. On this reading, God does certain things—usually of a rather spectacular nature—and creaturely causes do other things, usually more mundane. Thus, we can clearly parcel out responsibility and credit—some to God and some to finite agents. But this account is deeply unbiblical and alien to the Catholic theological tradition.
To understand the scriptural sense of the play between divine and human causality, it is helpful to consult the cycle of stories dealing with King David in first and second Samuel. What strikes the attentive reader is that nothing obviously “supernatural” takes place in these accounts. Practically everything that happens to David could be adequately accounted for on psychological, historical, military, or political grounds. However, throughout the narrative, God’s activity and involvement are assumed, for the.......
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicworldreport.com ...
Cuomo was never really that great.
The part of that controversial Bishop Barron interview with a gay atheist nobody’s talking about
God is not in charge — Cuomo is.
Is that not how many politicians think?
It (really) wasn’t all that long ago that I remember Congressmen etc saying politicians need to be paid more because low money attracts low class people and the ‘higher class’ people wouldn’t be running for office
I am certainly glad they got the money and the right to vote their pals more money or who knows what we would get stuck with.
What I will do instead is explain the basic intellectual confusion that undergirds Cuomo’s assertion, one that, I fear, is shared even by many believers. The condition for the possibility of the governor’s declaration is the assumption that God is one competitive cause among many, one actor jostling for position and time upon the stage with a coterie of other actors
"you thought that I was one like yourself. "
Not just a moral judgment.
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