The issue surrounds the activity of God in our lives. How often does God "break his own rules" to provide for us, or to punish us? Or does God let nature go largely unchecked?
Today I discovered a book that seems to discuss just this issue. An Examined Faith: The Grace of Self-Doubt by James M. Gustafson begins with a story of God's providence as told by Jonathan Edwards:
"We in this town, were the last Lord's Day the spectators, and many of us the subjects, of one of the most amazing instances of divine preservation, that perhaps was ever known in the land. Our meeting-house is old and decayed, so that we have been for some time building a new one, which is yet unfinished. It has been observed of late, that the house we have hitherto met in, has gradually spread at bottom; the cells and walls giving way, especially in the foreside, by reason of the weight of timber at top, pressing on the braces that are inserted into the posts and 'beams of the house. It has done so more than ordinarily this spring; which seems to have been occasioned by the heaving of the ground through the extreme frosts of the winter past, and its now settling again on that side which is next the sun, by the spring thaws. By this means, the under-pinning has been considerably disordered; which people were not sensible of till the ends of the joists which bore up the front gallery, were drawn off from the girts on which they rested by the walls giving way. So that in the midst of the public exercise in the forenoon, soon after the beginning of sermon, the whole gallery--full of people, with all the seats and timber, suddenly and without any warning--sunk, and fell down with the most amazing noise upon the heads of those that sat under, to the astonishment of the congregation. The house was filled with dolorous shrieking and crying; and nothing else was expected than to find many people dead, and dashed to pieces.
"The gallery in falling seemed to break and sink first in the middle; so that those who were upon it were thrown together in heaps before the front door. But the whole was so sudden, that many of them who fell, knew nothing at the time what it was that had befallen them. Others in the congregation thought it had been an amazing clap of thunder. The falling gallery seemed to be broken all to pieces before it got down; so that some who fell with it, as well as those who were under, were buried in the ruins; and were found pressed under heavy loads of timber, and could do nothing to help themselves.
But so mysteriously and wonderfully did it come to pass, that every life was preserved; and though many were greatly bruised, and their flesh torn, yet there is not, as I can understand, one bone broken or so much as put out of joint, among them all. Some who were thought to be almost dead at first, were greatly recovered; and but one young woman seems yet to remain in dangerous circumstances, by an inward hurt in her breast: but of late there appears more hope of her recovery.
None can give account, or conceive, by what means peoples lives and limbs should be thus preserved, when so great a multitude were thus imminently exposed. It looked as though it was impossible but that great numbers must instantly he crushed to death, or dashed in pieces. It seems unreasonable to ascribe it to any thing else but the care of Providence, in disposing the motions of every piece of timber, and the precise place of safety where every one should sit, and full, when none were in any capacity to care for their own preservation. The preservation seems to be most wonderful, with respect to the women and children in the middle ally, under the gallery, where it came down first, and with greatest force, and where there was nothing to break the force of the falling weight.
"Such an event may be a sufficient argument of a divine Providence over the lives of men. We thought ourselves called to set a part a day to be spent in the solemn worship of God, to humble ourselves under such a rebuke of God upon us in time of public service in his house by so dangerous and surprising an accident; and to praise his name for so wonderful, and as it were miraculous, a preservation. The last Wednesday was kept by us to that end; and a mercy in which the hand of God is so remarkably evident, may be well worthy to affect the hearts of all who hear it."
We don't often hear stories like this. If it is true, it is striking evidence that God does indeed tinker with his own rules to alter the "natural" outcomes of events. Gustafson, as if taking a cue from this very blog, follows this story with an unbroken string of over 20 questions raised by Edwards' story. Here is a small portion of these questions; where Gufstason questions the role of the observer on our interpretation of these events:
[D]oes Edwards, the pastor and theologian, look for a religious meaning in the processes and outcomes of an event that can be scientifically explained? If so, does the scientific explanation in any way control — license or limit — the possible religious meanings? Could some other pastor or theologian from a non-Reformed tradition find a radically different religious meaning from Edwards's? Or might Edwards, on another day, have found a different religious meaning?
I'm in the middle of re-reading C.S. Lewis' Miracles, an awesome book in which Lewis tackles the question of whether miracles are possible and/or probable. I'm reminded of a section of the book where Lewis discussed whether God's tinkering with nature is consistent with his character:
If the ultimate Fact is not an abstraction but the living God, opaque by the very fullness of His blinding actuality, then He might do things. He might work miracles. But would He? Many people of sincere piety feel that He would not. They think it unworthy of Him. It is petty and capricious tyrants who break their own laws: good and wise kinds obey them. Only an incompetent workman will produce work which needs to be interfered with. [...] [I believe this feeling to be] founded on an error. [p. 115]
I don't know how much God tinkers with nature, but I do know that I'll be tracking down a copy of Gufstason's book. It should be interesting.
Edit: (7/6/2008) I've since come across another book that looks like it deals with this subject in an interesting way. The book is The God of Miracles: An Exegetical Examination of God's Action in the World By C. John Collins. It looks like it has a significant portion dedicated to the interplay between science and the subject of God's action in the world.
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