Divine Providence

In theology, divine providence, or just providence, is God's intervention in the world. The term "Divine Providence" (usually capitalized) is also used as a title of God. A distinction is usually made between "general providence", which refers to God's continuous upholding the existence and natural order of the universe, and "special providence", which refers to God's extraordinary intervention in the life of people.Miracles generally fall in the latter category.

The word comes from Latin providentia "foresight, prudence", from pro- "ahead" and videre "to see". The current use of the word has the sense of "knowledge of the future" or omniscience, understood as an attribute of God.

In Acts 17 Paul says, "[I]t is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.... In him we live and move and have our being,..." Augustine of Hippo is perhaps most famously associated with the doctrine of Divine Providence in the Latin West. Augustine held that since God's governance takes place in the universe comprising a vast multitude of relatively independent individuals differing in nature, function, and end, this implies the continuous control and unifying governance of a single supreme Being.

However, Christian teaching on providence in the high Middle Ages was most fully developed by Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica. The concept of providence as care exercised by God over the universe, his foresight and care for its future is extensively developed and explained both by Aquinas himself and modern Thomists. One of the foremost modern Thomists, Dominican father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, wrote a study of providence entitled "Providence: God's loving care for man and the need for confidence in Almighty God." In it, he presents and solves, according to Catholic doctrine, the most difficult issues as related to providence.

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