Ross Douthat of the New York Times is known to defend the orthodox Christian faith (he is a Roman Catholic) in the pages of the Times. Late last summer he published a provocative opinion piece titled “Does God Control History?” His point is not to argue that because the Church believes in a sovereign God that we all should believe God is in total control of the heavens and earth. Of course, this notion of God controlling everything is dismissed and ridiculed in the de-Christianized culture to which Douthat writes. Rather, Douthat directs his main point to his Christian readers— “providentialism [that is, our recognition of God’s work in the world] is basically inescapable once you posit a divinity who made the world and acts in history.” That is, in spite of the cold-shoulder which Christianity receives in the world of the NYT’s reader, the logic of the Christian faith about God and the world compels Christians to explain how God’s works in the world, how we can discern divine providence.
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