Sovereignty of God in Christianity

Sovereignty of God in Christianity can be defined as the right of God to exercise his ruling power over his creation. Sovereignty can include also the way God exercises his ruling power. However this aspect is subject to divergences notably related to the concept of God's self-imposed limitations. The correlation between God's sovereignty and human free will is a crucial theme in discussions about the meaningful nature of human choice.

Definition
Theological dictionaries give fairly uniform definitions of the notion of God's sovereignty. At first, it can be seen as His "absolute right to do all things according to his own good pleasure." With more nuances, it can be seen as the teaching "[...] that all things come from and depend upon God. [...] [It] does not mean that everything which occurs in the world is God's will." More precisely, it can be defined as a twofold concept: "First, it may be seen as the divine right to rule totally; second, it may be extended to include God's exercise of this right. As to the first aspect, there is no debate. Difference of opinion arises in respect to the second aspect."

According to these definitions, God's sovereignty in Christianity can be defined as the right of God to exercise his ruling power over his creation. The way in which God exercises his power is subject to differing views. Calvinists typically view this exercise as an inherent aspect of the broader concept of sovereignty. Conversely, non-Calvinists may also integrate this exercise of power within the concept of sovereignty or consider it distinctly, then through the concept of divine providence.

The sovereignty of God must be distinguished from God's eternal attributes. For example, God's omnipotence is his quality of having unlimited power. This attribute is not contingent upon something else other than God himself, and is therefore one of his eternal attributes. God's sovereignty, as the right to exercise his ruling power over his creation, is contingent upon his creation. God's sovereignty was only first expressed after a creation existed to be expressed upon. If the sovereignty of God is considered one of his attributes, it is a temporal one. God's sovereignty should then be seen as his right to express his eternal attribute of omnipotence over his creation qualified by his other eternal attributes such as omnibenevolence and omniscience.

Perspectives on God's sovereignty in action
Throughout history, Christian theologians have advocated for a free-will theodicy. Besides, the question whether God's way of expressing his sovereignty is consistent with meaningful human decisions which are free from compulsion is a significant theological question in Christianity. The debate on this question was first clearly expressed by Augustine of Hippo in the 4th century. The debate has continued through various forms notably through the Calvinist-Arminian debate until today. Theologians have subsequently articulated various perspectives on how God's exercise of sovereignty corresponds to distinct self-imposed limitations.

Early Christian views
The Greek church fathers believed in classical free will theism and opposed theological determinism as a means of exercising God's sovereignty. For instance, Saint Maximus the Confessor ( c. 580 – 13 August 662) argued that because humans are made in the image of God, they possess the same type of self-determinism as God. The theological tradition before Augustine (354 – 430) uniformly emphasizes the freedom of the human will. However, Augustine expressed God's sovereignty as his continuous control and unifying governance over the universe.

Catholic views
Christian teaching on providence in the High Middle Ages was most fully developed by Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica (1274). It viewed the concept of providence as a care exercised by God over the universe.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1993) express the concept of God's sovereignty as his rule over his creation, allowing human libertarian free will and co-operation with him: "God is the sovereign master of his plan. But to carry it out he also makes use of his creatures' co-operation. This use is not a sign of weakness, but rather a token of almighty God's greatness and goodness. God grants his creatures not only their existence, but also the dignity of acting on their own, of being causes and principles for each other, [...]".

Eastern Orthodox view
In general, Eastern Theology places much more emphasis on human freedom and less on God's sovereignty than do the Augustinian and Reformed strands of Western theology. Orthodox view of human free will is close to the Wesleyan-Arminian view.

Reformed view
Orthodox Reformed (both historical and Edwardsian) view God's sovereignty as expressed through theological determinism. This means that every event in the world is determined by God. As the Westminster Confession of Faith put it: "God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatever comes to pass."

From this perspective, God alone possesses free-will in the sense of ultimate self-determination. Moreover, God acts through voluntarism in its nominalist sense. This means, what God does is good not because it is guided by his character or moral structure within his nature, but only because God wants it. Besides, Calvinism affirm a soft determinism involving semicompatibilism, which implies the compatibility between human responsibility for an act and its determination by God.

Concerning salvation, Calvin expressly taught that it is God's sovereign decision to determine whether an individual is saved or damned. He writes "By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man. All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death." Indeed, human actions leading to this end are also predetermined by God.

Concerning prayer, from an Edwardsian Calvinist view, it can be seen as a predetermined means for a predetermined purpose. More generally, from the majority Calvinist view, prayer can't change by itself what is predetermined by God. Specifically, prayer for salvation will not change the predetermined damnation of some. Nor will prayer for salvation cause the predetermined salvation of the elect.

Arminian view
Arminianism accepts classical theism, which states that God is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. In that view, God's power, knowledge, and presence have no external limitations, that is, outside of his divine nature and character.

Besides, Arminianism view on God's way of expressing his sovereignty, i.e. his providence, is based on postulates stemming from God's character, especially as fully revealed in Jesus Christ. On the first hand, divine election must be defined in such a way that God is not in any case, and even in a secondary way, the author of evil. On the other hand, man's responsibility for evil must be absolutely preserved. Together these two postulates are viewed as necessary to correspond to the character of God and describe the manner in which God chooses to manifest his sovereignty when interacting with his creatures:

On one hand, it requires God to operate according to a voluntarily limited mode of providence. This means that God deliberately exercises sovereignty without determining every event. On the other hand, it requires God's election to be a "predestination by foreknowledge".

In that respect, God's foreknowledge reconciles with human free will in the following way: Human free will is limited by original sin, though God's prevenient grace restores to humanity the ability to accept God's call of salvation. God's foreknowledge of the future is exhaustive and complete, and therefore the future is certain and not contingent on human action. God does not determine the future, but He does know it. God's certainty and human contingency are compatible.

To Arminians, then, the decision to believe and repent is a decision which a sovereign God granted to humanity. Thus, free will is granted and limited by God's sovereignty, but God's sovereignty allows all men the choice to accept the Gospel of Jesus through faith, simultaneously allowing all men to resist.