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Doubting Thomas: A Defense of Thomas Aquinas’ Account of Divine Providence in Response to David Fergusson Cover

Doubting Thomas: A Defense of Thomas Aquinas’ Account of Divine Providence in Response to David Fergusson

Open Access
|Sep 2025

Abstract

This essay constitutes a response to two criticisms of Thomas Aquinas’ account of divine providence which David Fergusson puts forward in his book The Providence of God: A Polyphonic Account. I first argue that on Thomas’ account, God does not determine good and evil with a ‘single divine intention’ (Ferguson 2018: 73). Instead, God’s will and activity are related to good and evil quite asymmetrically. I then argue, against Fergusson, that Thomas’ account of divine providence assigns a great role to the special and recognizable work of the Holy Spirit. I conclude by noting that Thomas’ account of providence addresses many of Fergusson’s own concerns in his constructive project.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/perc-2025-0017 | Journal eISSN: 2284-7308 | Journal ISSN: 1224-984X
Language: English
Page range: 95 - 111
Published on: Sep 18, 2025
Published by: Emanuel University Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 3 issues per year

© 2025 Nathaniel Hodson, published by Emanuel University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.