Thursday, July 31, 2008

providence v sovereignty

well, after my ponderings a couple of weeks ago, i had a look, and wouldn't you know it - there is a Providence - Providence, Rhode Island:
just nor-west of Nantucket (isn't there a poem about a chap from those parts?), and i'm a little dubious as to what qualifies Rhode Island as an Island - either it's just a region under the jurisdiction of the island, or it never was an island, they just thought there was a lot of water (seasonal flooding, perhaps?), or there are now so many roads, tunnels, bridges, that the term island is simply an anachronism now.

but my question, after pondering, and before my Doctrine essay due in on Monday, is:

What is the difference between Providence and Sovereignty?

i look up one book, it ways sovereignty, another providence, but in my mind they are slightly different things.
Sovereignty is to say that God is complete control, that not a sparrow falls from the sky without his willing it; whereas Providence is to do with nothing being able to thwart the culmination of God's plan of redemption.

it seems to me a distortion to conflate these two - but is it really just Orangen and Äpfelsinen (that is, six of one, half a dozen of another)?

any help (before Monday, preferably) would be most helpful.

* (map obviously from google maps - not sure how to give exact long/lat references.)

2 comments:

reuben// said...

might a sovereign act in a non-providential way? maybe.

I think they're slightly different too.

To be (truly) providential, you'd certainly have to be sovereign though...

haoran said...

You don't listen to enough Eagles :)

"She came from Providence,
the one in Rhode Island
Where the old world shadows hang
heavy in the air..."

The Last Resort.