1. Source and History of the Idea

1.1. The general human experience of contingency, with reference either to the fate of individuals or to the history of theistic beliefs (Theism), has always come up against the idea of a teleological action that sustains, accompanies, and guides the action of the gracious or judging God. God is viewed as a personal ruler of both individual and universal history. This history is not subject to blind chance, as in Epicureanism (Greek Philosophy 7.1), nor to the laws of nature, as in a…