This lecture explores some concerns about the notion of Special Divine Action (SDA) within mainline English religious circles from about 1650 to 1800, focussing on three interconnected developments. In the first place, the increasingly rational culture of this period appears to have created a prejudice against the idea of SDA. Second, the growing emphasis on the “lawlike” behaviour of the natural world created anxiety about the notion of SDA, partly because this appeared to contravene the frameworks of regularity that were coming to be valued around this time.

SDA was something that had indeed happened in the primordial act of creation; yet many now regarded God as governing the world not through “signs and wonders”, but through the laws of nature. Third, many theologians of this age were apprehensive about the rationality of the doctrine of the Trinity, and tended to think of God in non-interventionist terms. These trends will be discussed in the writings of theologians from Newton to Paley, and their mutual relationship and significance assessed. Finally, their relevance for contemporary discussions of the question will be assessed.