Purpose and Providence : Taking Soundings in Western Thought, Literature and Theology

Do our lives have purpose? Despite the rise of secularism, we are still confronted by a sense of meaning and direction in the events of history and our own lives - something which is beyond us and not our own creation/imagination. Using the novels of Thomas Hardy and Julian Barnes, Vernon White tracks this belief in intellectual history and tests its resilience in modern literature. Both novelists portray modern and late-modern scenarios where, although the idea of an objective purpose has been deconstructed, it still haunts the protagonists.

Using literature as the starting point, the discussion moves on to an exploration of this belief in its theological form, through the doctrine of providence. White critically reviews the classic canon of providence and its pressure points - the problems in divine causality, the metaphysical assumptions required in its acceptance, and the contradictions to be found between God's purpose and the metanarratives of history. Using Barth and Frei, White suggests new ways of re-imagining divine providence to take account of these issues. The credibility of this re-defined providence is then tested against scripture, experience and praxis, with the result being an understanding of providence that does not rely on empirical progress.

“This is a rich and attractive exploration. Vernon White is serious about attending to the texture of modern experience, and facing up to the loss of earlier forms of confidence in providence. He supports this with a wide range of soundings in intellectual history, literature, and theology. Above all, he then offers a complex but compelling call to Christians to retrieve the kind of figural imagination that will enable them to live in the world in the light of God's providence.” —Mike Higton, University of Durham, UK

“Elliptical, haunting, and finely written. Particularly noteworthy is how White juxtaposes a sense of loss with a sense of the need for a retrieval of some view of providence. This book can only do good for the reputation of theological thinking. It is an outstanding reflective piece of work on the subject.” —Keith Ward, Regius Professor of Divinity, Emeritus, University of Oxford, UK

“All in all, Purpose and Providence provides high-quality, fair-minded and wide-ranging commentary on historic and contemporary proposals for conceiving providence. White strikes gold, however, in bringing the conceptuality and insights of textual hermeneutics to bear on the doctrine of providence … White’s pioneering contribution is remarkable and deserves to be greatly appreciated. All who may wish to go further in making sense and speaking of God’s providence in the world are in his debt.” – International Journal of Systematic Theology