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AN HISTORICAL and THEOLOGICAL SURVEY of the CATHOLIC DOCTRINE of PREDESTINATION Andrew J

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AN HISTORICAL and THEOLOGICAL SURVEY of the CATHOLIC DOCTRINE of PREDESTINATION Andrew J University of St. Thomas, Minnesota UST Research Online School of Divinity Master’s Theses and Projects Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity 7-2013 AN HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION Andrew J. Allen University of St. Thomas, Minnesota Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.stthomas.edu/sod_mat Part of the History of Christianity Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Allen, Andrew J., "AN HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION" (2013). School of Divinity Master’s Theses and Projects. 5. https://ir.stthomas.edu/sod_mat/5 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity at UST Research Online. It has been accepted for inclusion in School of Divinity Master’s Theses and Projects by an authorized administrator of UST Research Online. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AN HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION Andrew J. Allen A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Arts in Theology Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity Saint Paul, Minnesota July 2013 Table of Contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1 1. Historical Overview to the 13th Century ......................................................................................6 A. Predestination in Sacred Scripture ..................................................................................6 B. Church Fathers ..............................................................................................................18 C. St. Augustine .................................................................................................................33 D. Medieval Theologians Prior to St. Thomas ..................................................................42 E. Magisterial Statements ..................................................................................................60 2. St. Thomas Aquinas ...................................................................................................................69 A. The Doctrine of Predestination: Principle Claims ........................................................69 B. Thomas’ Doctrine of Free Will .....................................................................................80 C. The Doctrine of Grace in the Summa Theologiae .........................................................87 D. St. Thomas on Prayer ..................................................................................................104 3. Conclusion ...............................................................................................................................112 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................120 1 "Not only does God protect and govern all things by his providence, but He also, by an internal power, impels to motion and action whatever moves and acts, and this in such a manner that, although He excludes not, He yet precedes the agency of secondary causes." Catechism of the Council of Trent, Article One "The truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is inseparable from faith in God the Creator. God is the first cause who operates in and through secondary causes: "For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Far from diminishing the creature's dignity, this truth enhances it. Drawn from nothingness by God's power, wisdom, and goodness, it can do nothing if it is cut off from its origin, for "without a Creator, the creature vanishes." Still less can a creature attain its ultimate end without the help of God's grace." Catechism of the Catholic Church, 3081 Introduction For many Catholics predestination is a bad word. To them it signifies an oppressive doctrine derived from Reformation theology and lurking in the shadows of the Christian theological tradition, which denies human freedom and makes God into a sovereign sadist. Polls would likely reveal that along with many moral teachings, some Catholics would ‘strongly disagree’ with the doctrine of predestination. It is rarely if ever preached in homilies or taught in Catholic schools, and only explicitly appears once in the current edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.2 Yet as we will see, the mystery of predestination is a Catholic dogma, distinct from the Reformed doctrine; a truth revealed by God and as such is proposed by the Church to the faithful with the obligation of believing it. Why then is there this conspicuous lacuna? Part of the issue could be the inscrutable nature of mysteries, predestination being one of the most sublime, in that it treats of the very eternal decrees of God in his providential ordering 1 Steven A. Long, “Providence, Freedom, and Natural Law,” Nova et Vetera, English Edition, Vol. 4, No.3 (2006): 577. 2 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 600 (John Salza, The Mystery of Predestination: According to Scripture, the Church, and St. Thomas Aquinas (Charlotte: Tan Books, 2010), ix, no. 1): “To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of “predestination,” he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace.” 2 of the universe, and specifically, of rational creatures. Yet this is certainly not the case. For, one does not have to wait too long in any theological conversation before speaking of the central Christian mystery of the Trinity, and yet this mystery is not met with the same consternation as predestination when introduced.3 In addition, any cursory survey of the development of Christian doctrine will show that it has ever been the object of faith, prayerful study, and philosophical speculation, from the very beginnings of the Church to the modern era. Not because of aimless human curiosity, but because it is a datum of revelation. Indeed, predestination is a truth which is revealed by God the Father that Christians are: destined…in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us.4 And this, the Father wants to communicate: For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.5 The other reason may be the unintended effects of teaching/preaching a doctrine that can be easily misrepresented. Though St. Augustine wrote about the necessity of preaching on the subject, he did warn against a kind of offence one could cause among the audience, and advised prudence when speaking about predestination. The effect should not be slothfulness, but glory given to God.6 It is our conviction that the reason the doctrine of predestination is largely avoided in Catholic circles/institutions is two-fold. First, it is not understood in its proper historical context 3 Salza, The Mystery of Predestination, ix, no. 1. 4 Ephesians 1:5-8. 5 Ephesians 1:9-10. 6 St. Augustine, “On the Gift of Perseverance,” in Saint Augustine: Four Anti-Pelagian Writings, trans. John A. Mourant (Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1992), 327. 3 as a Catholic doctrine, derived from the sources of revelation and explicated by virtually all of the great theologians of the Church. Instead, it is often seen in some Catholic circles as an anomaly of Reformed theology. Secondly, that there are two underlying theological errors which distort the doctrine itself: 1. That God is just one agent (albeit the most powerful one) among many in the universe. 2. That human liberty requires a radical autonomy, even from the very causal ground on which it stands. If one’s theological landscape does not include a proper understanding of divine providence and the creature’s dependence on God for every free act, whether natural or supernatural, then God’s predestination becomes an obstacle to freedom and an arbiter of mercy for some, and strict justice for most. Thus, the task of this paper will be to 1. Provide an historical survey of the development of the Catholic doctrine of predestination to uncover its presence in the Tradition, and 2. Present the theological content of the doctrine with an emphasis on the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, which we believe to be a faithful theocentric account according to Sacred Scripture and Tradition, arguing against the noted theological errors about the nature of God and free will.7 For St. Thomas never tires of asserting God’s primacy and yet upholds man’s dignity. For him, all glory given to creatures is glory that redounds to God. To accomplish the stated task, this paper will be divided into three chapters. In the first, we present an historical overview of the development of the doctrine to the 13th century to properly contextualize it within the Catholic Tradition. All of the principle elements of a doctrine of predestination are shown to be biblical, both in the Old and New Testaments,
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