fate
Quick Summary
Fate refers to a predetermined outcome or inevitable end, often seen as a powerful, impersonal force that governs events. In classical mythology, this concept was personified by the three goddesses known as the Fates: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, who spun, allotted, and cut the thread of human life, respectively.12
In religious contexts, particularly Christianity, the idea of predestination suggests that God has eternally chosen who will be saved. This doctrine has various interpretations, ranging from God foreknowing future faith to a strict view where God determines both salvation and damnation regardless of human actions.3
Beliefs about what happens after death, or the afterlife, vary widely. Some religions, like Hinduism, propose reincarnation, a cycle of death and rebirth influenced by karma. Other traditions, including Christianity, focus on an eternal life in heaven or hell, with concepts like purgatory offering a middle ground for purification. Fatalism, a related concept, is an attitude of accepting all events as predetermined, sometimes leading to resignation.456
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providenceEtymological history of the term…of a blind and inexorable fate can lead to a conflict with the belief in a benevolent providence. In the Greco-Roman world, where fatalistic belief was strong and where it found a popular expression in astrology, the belief that the whole world, but particularly the human realm, is governed by…
Read More…of a blind and inexorable fate can lead to a conflict with the belief in a benevolent providence. In the Greco-Roman world, where fatalistic belief was strong and where it found a popular expression in astrology, the belief that the whole world, but particularly the human realm, is governed by…
Read More- providenceCritical problems
…show a certain ambivalence, for fate and providence do not always form a clear-cut contradiction.
Read More…show a certain ambivalence, for fate and providence do not always form a clear-cut contradiction.
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mythMyths of providence and destiny…filled with doubt about their fate or the fate of their communities. In some myths divine supremacy is marked by a god’s mastery over fate. Marduk, the patron god of Babylon, acquires the “tablets of fate” in his primordial battle preceding the creation. There is no doubt about Zeus’s supremacy…
Read More…filled with doubt about their fate or the fate of their communities. In some myths divine supremacy is marked by a god’s mastery over fate. Marduk, the patron god of Babylon, acquires the “tablets of fate” in his primordial battle preceding the creation. There is no doubt about Zeus’s supremacy…
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pantheismGreco-Roman doctrines…helps them to understand human fate, which is the place of the species in the universal system. Although the view is an amalgam of several types of pantheism, this particular mixture has retained its identity. It is therefore useful to call this position, or any similar combination of themes, by…
Read More…helps them to understand human fate, which is the place of the species in the universal system. Although the view is an amalgam of several types of pantheism, this particular mixture has retained its identity. It is therefore useful to call this position, or any similar combination of themes, by…
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Roman religionReligion in the later Republic: crises and new trends…encouraging a widespread belief in Fate and also, somewhat illogically, in Fortune, both of which were revered in other parts of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern world. Second, Stoicism infused a new spirituality into religious thinking by its insistence that the human soul is part of the universal spirit and…
Read More…encouraging a widespread belief in Fate and also, somewhat illogically, in Fortune, both of which were revered in other parts of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern world. Second, Stoicism infused a new spirituality into religious thinking by its insistence that the human soul is part of the universal spirit and…
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