Fortune and Providence

I read that, in the European Middle Ages, the Catholic Church would not allow people to refer to fortune as an explanation for success--only to providence.  Hence Daniel Kahneman: "Luck plays a large role in every story of success; it is almost always easy to identify a small change in the story that would have turned a remarkable achievement into a mediocre outcome" (Thinking, Fast and Slow, 9).  Yet most people would attribute their success, if they have experienced it, to hard work, ingenuity, or even a ruthless or sociopathic competitiveness.  Yet luck or fortune, not divine intervention, is the key--unless the game is fixed in which case even an incomptent white, say, can make it in a racist society.  But in a truly competitive society, luck may be more important than anything else.  Lack of success may often be bad luck--or just stupidity.