Nicholas Lash on discerning God’s agency in history

“Times have changed. The insurance policy on my house declares that ‘The company shall not be liable in respect of’ a number of things, including damage resulting from ‘the radioactive toxic explosive or other hazardous properties of any explosive nuclear assembly or nuclear component thereof,’ but makes no mention of ‘acts of God.’ Does it follow that if damage occurred to my house such that the least implausible explanation of it was that it was attributable to an act of God, the company would pay up? Or is it simply that the insurance company has taken the risk of assuming that no event could occur of which such was the least implausible explanation?”

from “These Things Were Here and but the Beholder Wanting,” Theology on Dover Beach, (Wipf & Stock, 2005), 150. [Originally SCM, 1979]