The Ten Thousand Places Podcast

The One Where We Talk about the Matrix and God’s Permissive Will

January 16, 2023 OSV Podcasts
The Ten Thousand Places Podcast
The One Where We Talk about the Matrix and God’s Permissive Will
Show Notes

The boys take a (surely much-appreciated) break from Vatican II to talk about – you guessed it! – the Matrix. Listeners may wonder what took us so long to address the science fiction juggernaut, and with good reason. Oh yeah, and we also talk about how will, choice, and providence all cohere with God’s will in what he approves or permits, and how this acts as one answer to the problem of evil. Obviously.

Episode Glossary and References:

Providence – God’s passive and active agency in bringing about his transcendent will in the cosmos, but without negating our own free will and agency.

Permissive Will – God’s passive will that allows events, choices, actions, that he does not desire or approve of, but that he allows on the basis of our own free power to choose, which God himself gave us as part of the Imago Dei, the Image of God (cf. Gen. 1-2).
“My Dinner with Andre” – it’s not important, don’t worry about it.

Hegel, Hegelianism – An 19th century German Enlightenment Idealist philosopher who wrote a bunch of stuff that is very dense and no one can agree on what it means. Commonly associated (though not necessarily validly) with the notion of “thesis-antithesis-synthesis.” You can look into it. God help you.

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