Catholic Dictionary

Term

FAITH VERSUS FATALISM

Definition

The phenomenon in world religious history that, as faith in a personal God recedes, fatalism takes over. Those who believe realize that there is more to human events -- and therefore to history -- than brute data unfolding themselves through inner necessity. There are wills, and their free exercise, in the universe: of God, who freely guides mankind, and of humans who freely reject or respond to the divine will.