The latter part of Genesis looks remarkably similar to our world; indeed it is from the Joseph story that Monotheism has mined the remarkable doctrine of God's Providence (How God works with our lives, nations etc. without seeming to, or as is traditionally said, through secondary causes). It's not a word that's used very much these days. Christian tribes seemed to have split into two competing visions of God: God is present in overt ways: healing, speaking, giving ecstatic experiences and the like and those Christians who have largely given up on God's presence in favour of human politics, sociology, and psychology. But what if God is "present" precisely in the things that look most human all the while preserving human freedom. What if our dreams and goals really are our dreams and goals and yet somehow within God's dynamic presence? That is part of the mysterious doctrine of providence that Fr. Allen tackles this week. Next week he will look at how the scriptures use this depiction of God's action in terms of the wider story of salvation.
