Michael Dodds

Our ability to talk about God's action in the world is closely tied to our understanding of causality. With the advent of modern Newtonian science the conception of causality narrowed, and the discussion of divine action became locked into that contracted understanding. There seemed to be simply no room for God to act in the world without interfering with nature and the laws of science that describe it.

Much contemporary debate surrounds the traditional teaching that God is unchanging. It is frequently argued that an immutable God must be cold, remote, indifferent, and uncaring--that an unchanging God cannot be the triune God of love revealed in Scripture. Those who reject divine immutability often single out Thomas Aquinas as its most prominent proponent. Unfortunately, such critics of his theology frequently misunderstand the fundamentals of Aquinas's actual teaching.