Monday, April 27, 2009

The Showcase of God's Glory: Middle Knowledge

Theologians and philosophers dispute the legitimacy of the proposed second type of God’s knowledge, middle knowledge. Middle knowledge first presupposes the compatibility of divine foreknowledge and human freedom. Second, even for those who ascribe to compatibilism, it remains rather difficult to prove or demonstrate God’s knowledge of that which does not actually exist. For the limited scope of this paper, however, it will be assumed that middle knowledge does exist in the divine being. Hasker succinctly summarizes the classical theory of middle knowledge, writing:

For each possible free creature that might exist, and for each possible situation in
which such a creature might make a free choice, there is a truth, known to God
prior to and independent of any decision on God’s part, concerning what definite
choice that creature would freely make if placed in that situation.

In God’s free knowledge, He knows what the agent actually does, whereas in situations that never arise, and where there is no particular action for God to know, His middle knowledge informs Him as to what would have transpired. God knows what every possible creature would do, not just could do. It is vital to note as well that middle knowledge is neither deterministic nor probabilistic as it is not that God determines what agents will decide to do or that He knows what agents most probably will do. Rather, God’s middle knowledge informs Him of how all possible free beings will freely act in all possible circumstances. The only way God can prevent the decision of free beings in a given circumstance is to abstain from creating either the agent and/or the particular circumstance.

Middle knowledge shares features, and yet distinctions, with both natural and free knowledge. God’s middle knowledge is like His natural in that it precedes the free acts of His will, yet bears likeness to free knowledge in that what He knows does not emanate directly from His nature. Akin to free knowledge, while by His nature God has middle knowledge, the content of that knowledge is contingent upon creatures. God’s middle knowledge includes not only this knowledge of counterfactuals of creaturely freedom, but also any “contingent, prevolitional truth.” God not only knows what creatures will do in any given situation, but also knows as well how He, Himself, will respond in any given situation. Middle knowledge thus informs God what world would result from any creative activity He might perform.

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