In the course of my teaching I have lately had occasion to reread Boethius's medieval classic, Consolation of Philosophy.  All in all, it's a fascinating book.  At the same time, I've been re-reading twentieth century historian Arthur Lovejoy's Great Chain of Being.  While Boethius explores and celebrates, using the figure of Philosophy (a woman), the intricacies of divine providence and human choice and eternal time, Lovejoy ponders how, in a world driven by principles of plentitude and continuity, such things can even exist.  That is, how can providence overcome the plentitude which it itself brought into being?  How can we affirm divine sovereignty while also upholding earthly inexhaustibility?
     Although I do not have any ready answers, I offer that neither position can work without the other.  If there is no God, there is no discernible future.  Yet if there is a God, the future is inexhaustible.
     Which do you prefer?