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Divine Providence

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Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences

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Introduction

Literally translated, the Latin term providentia means foreseeing (pro = prae = ahead, videre = seeing). The Greek equivalent is pronoia (forethought or foresight). But in the history of Christian thought, providence refers not only to God’s seeing and knowing but also to ordaining the creation and to acting upon and in creation. In that (traditional) understanding, it expresses the belief that all things are ordered and regulated by God toward his purposes (praedeterminatio = foreordination) and the belief that God acts according to his purposes in order to care for the creation (procuratio = “caring for,” “providing with”). Here pro does not have the meaning of “fore” (prae, in German: “vorher”) but of “in favor of” (in German: “für”). So one can say, the term “providence” covers a spectrum of meanings that includes perceptive and intellectual practices (seeing, knowing), voluntary aspects (making and exerting a counsel, ordaining), and actions (preserving, caring...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Theology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Reinhold Bernhardt

Authors
  1. Reinhold Bernhardt
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Correspondence to Reinhold Bernhardt .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Theoretical Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    Dana Jalobeanu

  2. ICUB-Humanities, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    Dana Jalobeanu

  3. Department of Philosophy, Université de Toulouse Jean-Jaurès, Toulouse, France

    Charles T. Wolfe

Section Editor information

  1. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación, National University of La Plata, Argentina., Buenos Aires, Ensenada , Argentina

    Silvia Manzo

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Bernhardt, R. (2022). Divine Providence. In: Jalobeanu, D., Wolfe, C.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31069-5_13

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