The divine concurrence — the doctrine that God's sovereign will and human free action operate simultaneously in every event without contradiction. God does not merely permit things to happen and then react; nor does He coerce creatures as a puppeteer manipulates marionettes. Rather, God concurs with every creaturely act, working in and through secondary causes to accomplish His purposes while creatures act according to their own natures, motives, and wills. The supreme biblical illustration is the crucifixion: wicked men acted according to their own hatred and self-interest, yet God was simultaneously working "according to the definite plan and foreknowledge" of redemption (Acts 2:23). Judas betrayed; Pilate condemned; soldiers crucified — and in every act, God was sovereignly accomplishing the salvation of the world. Concursus is the theological resolution of the apparent paradox between divine sovereignty and human responsibility: both are fully real, fully operative, and fully maintained.
CONCUR'RENCE, n. [L. concurrentia.]
1. A meeting or coming together; union; conjunction.
2. A meeting of minds; agreement in opinion; union in design.
3. Agreement; consent; approbation.
4. A meeting of things or events; combination of agents, circumstances, or things.
Webster did not include the Latin theological term "concursus" as a distinct entry, but the concept of concurrent divine and human agency was well understood in Reformed and Catholic theology long before 1828.
Modern theology tends to collapse the tension that concursus holds together. Open Theism denies God's comprehensive sovereignty, reducing Him to a spectator who reacts to human decisions. Hyper-Calvinism swings the opposite direction, making human agency an illusion and God the direct author of sin. Deism removes God from the picture entirely after creation. All three errors dissolve the mystery that Scripture insists upon: that "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28) AND that humans are genuinely accountable for their choices. The modern mind, uncomfortable with paradox, demands resolution — and in resolving it, destroys the truth. Concursus teaches us to hold both realities in reverent tension.
Acts 2:23 — "This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men."
Acts 4:27–28 — "…both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place."
Philippians 2:12–13 — "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."
Proverbs 21:1 — "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He will."
Isaiah 10:5–7 — "Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger…But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think."
Concursus is the theological backbone of providence. Without it, prayer makes no sense (why ask God to act if He cannot influence events?) and moral responsibility collapses (why hold men accountable if God alone determines outcomes?).
Understanding concursus liberates the believer from two false anxieties: the anxiety that God is absent (He concurs with every moment) and the anxiety that our choices are meaningless (they are genuinely ours and genuinely consequential).
The doctrine is not meant to be "solved" but worshipped — it reveals a God so great that He can sovereignly govern all things while granting His creatures genuine agency within that governance.