Introduction

This introduction provides an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book considers the relation between natural contingency and divine providence from the perspective of Thomas Aquinas, a thirteenth-century Christian philosopher, while actively engaging with recent philosophical and theological literature on divine providential action. It presents the fundamental notions of the debate surrounding providence and science, such as general divine action, special divine action, and explore the basic features of contingency, indeterminism, chance, and randomness. The book focuses on Aquinas’ doctrine of God as pure being, in order to pave the way for his exposition of the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, from which his metaphysical doctrine of providence springs. It argues that Aquinas offers the metaphysical principles for a solution to the questions raised by the current debate on divine providential action.