OCCASIONALISM. [This entry deals specifically with Islamic occasionalism.] The adjective occasional, as applied to causes or events, is used by medieval European theologians such as Thomas Aquinas to mean an "indirect cause which determines any...

. Doctrine that things or events are caused only by God, never by other things or events. God uses apparent causes as occasions (hence called occasional causes) for creating their apparent effects. Associated especially with Malebranche and others of...

Occasionalism is a philosophical theory about causation which says that created substances cannot be efficient causes of events. Instead, all events are taken to be caused directly by God Himself. (A related theory, which has been called 'occasional...

Chien-Ming Wang has won 35 games for the Yankees since the start of the 2006 season. He rebounded from his recent struggles with a strong effort Thursday, allowing just one hit in a win over the Red Sox. But for a pitcher the Yankees are...

Enough actual coverage of the Senate race. Time for some quick coverage of the coverage. In an ordinary campaign, there might be some benefit to the wave of bad news that's washed around Jeanine Pirro on her first week. A bad press conference is never...

The London Observer has just put up a really excellent new blog, a mixture of links, commentary, and a kind of relaxed openness we've never seen in a major world newspaper. Check out this bit, a late-night item by the executive editor that begins, "OK,...