Agency Experience and the Limitations of Non‐Contrastive Transcendence

Abstract This essay argues that although the principle of non‐contrastive transcendence (NCT) is persuasive on its own terms, there are theologically important dimensions of the relationship between divine and human agency that are not captured by an interpretive framework governed by NCT alone. Agency is not just a philosophical category; it is also a terminology that describes and interprets important aspects of human experience of both themselves and God. The essay begins by suggesting that NCT functions primarily as an apophatic principle in Christian theology, and then shows that a number of scriptural texts thematize the relationship between divine and human agency as operating on the same causal plane from the perspective of the experience of human agents. Two examples are then given of cases where NCT has been overapplied as an interpretive principle due to a failure to recognize the experiential dimensions of agency discourse. The essay concludes by suggesting that a more cataphatic approach to agency is theologically legitimate in the domain of soteriology in particular.