ABSTRACT
DIVINE providence has the closest possible relations with the theme we discussed in the last lecture. According to many philosophers it is God's providence that marks the essential distinction between a mere deism "evacuated of all moral content" and a moral theism. We distinguish between the theory of a demiurge that plans and schemes on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the conception of a God who, in his planning, cares for that which within the plan is subtler and finer than the rest. We turn our minds towards a deity that, as we think, does not merely order all things but also, as the Book of Wisdom says, "ordereth all things graciously".
