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Predestination (Latin, ‘ordaining in advance’) is the subject of a long-running theological controversy, especially in Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Does God know, and determine, in advance, everything that will happen to each individual and each group in creation, and if so, how does this square with the notion that each human being has free will? The arguments are, first, that God has (or has not) an eternal purpose, which existed long before the creation of the universe and its inhabitants; second, that God has chosen particular individuals or peoples to further this purpose; and third, that God has chosen particular individuals or peoples to be vessels of his grace, and to be given eternal life. The idea of purpose in all this makes it a different view from that of the wheel of life in Indian religions, which is thought of as an objective phenomenon and in which human beings, by their actions in one incarnation, can affect their situation in the next. In Christian theology, predestination was first expounded by St Augustine in the 7th century, and became an important part of Lutheranism and Calvinism at the time of the Reformation; Augustine was opposed by Pelagius, who supported the counter-doctrine of free will. KMcL |
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