FATALISM. – A philosophical or theological doctrine that holds every event, whether natural or human, to be the ineluctable effect of a superior and necessary connection of causes. Various forms of fatalism are distinguished according to the nature attributed to the First Cause from which the movement of the machine of the universe begins. Physical and cosmological fatalism is that of the pre-Socratics and, in substance, also that of the Stoics; theological fatalism is that of the Neoplatonists; astral fatalism, the best known and derived from Origen (Chaldeans), if it attributes the outcome of human events to the celestial bodies.
In theology, those doctrines that do not leave a sufficient place for human freedom in the mysteries of Predestination (v.) and Grace (v.) approach fatalism (Lutheranism, Calvinism, Quietism, etc.). See FATO.
F.A.T.E.: See FEDERAZIONE ASSOCIAZIONI TEATRO EDUCATIVO.