ABSTRACT
This chapter develops a metaphysical approach to the ethics and theology of fittingness, inspired by the traditional conception of the convertibility of being (c.q. of the environment) and goodness. Both a pre-given (e.g., teleological) goodness and an externally imposed subjective goodness are deemed inadequate for that task. Instead, the vantage point is a concept borrowed from ecological psychology, namely affordances. Affordances are what the environment affords the actor, for good or ill, being neither an objective property of the environment nor a subjective one ‘in the eye of the beholder’. They are incorporated in a metaphysics of powers as mutual manifestations of reciprocal disposition partners. Good or ill as the presence or absence of value is then a mutual manifestation by actors and environment together. Since powers precede their contingent manifestation, value also precedes its contingent manifestation, making the environment a treasure trove of possible value whereby we contingently uncover what was always already there. The ultimate origin of all earthly value can lead towards theological concepts like grace, affording salvation. These graces will then likewise have always already been there to providentially guide us along our earthly path.
