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Providence and Responsibility: the Divine and the Human in History from the Perspective of Moral Theology

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Providence and Responsibility: the Divine and the Human in History from the Perspective of Moral Theology PROVIDENCE AND RESPONSIBILITY: THE DIVINE AND THE HUMAN IN HISTORY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF MORAL THEOLOGY My topic deals with providence and responsibility, the divine and the human in history, from the perspective of moral theology. Moral theology involves crit- ical, thematic, and systematic reflection on the life and action of members of the Christian community. Determining how to live and act as Christian believers requires one to come to grips with the topic proposed by our convention. Providence refers to divine action in human history. The problem is perennial—how do the divine and the human come together in human action and in history? Does divine providence af- fect human responsibility? The topic is immense and touches many aspects of our understanding of God, the transcendent, history, human agency, and the world. This paper will consider first how Catholic moral theology has historically dealt with this problem of human responsibility and divine providence. The second part of the paper will deal with contemporary discussions about providence, and the third part will discuss implications for moral theology in the light of the first two sections. t HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Providence in its etymological sense refers to God's foresight. In a more spe- cific sense, providence sums up God's relationship to the world as knowing, will- ing, and executing the plan of salvation and leading the world to its decreed end. More will be said later about providence, but most commentators recognize prov- idence as a mystery and strive to understand how the divine and the human work together. On the more popular level, one senses that providence js invoked somewhat frequently and often as emphasizing the divine at the expense of the human and thereby downplaying human responsibility. Human passivity can easily be justi- fied by an appeal to divine providence. Most Christians today recognize some truth in the Marxist claim that religion is the opium of the people. Not only the promise of the future life but the recognition that an all wise and powerful God has a plan for the world can contribute to the weakening of human responsibility. Anne Pat- rick has proposed that a literalist understanding of divine providence and of the direct intervention of God in history for some Catholics and Protestants cashes out in absolutist defenses of unborn life and passionate espousals of creationist the- 44 CTSA Proceedings 44 / 1989 ones of the origin of the species.1 However, an overview of Catholic moral the- ology indicates that providence is seldom mentioned in Catholic moral theology and that human responsibility is consistently stressed with no lessening of human responsibility because of the role of divine providence. The manuals of moral the- ology in use since the seventeenth century until the Second Vatican Council do not discuss providence and generally do not refer to the direct, independent inter- vention of God in the world. Anyone familiar with the manuals of moral theology would agree that providence plays no role in the assessment of moral conduct. The full responsibility rests with human agents. This fact calls for an explanation. Why do the manuals of Catholic moral theology not appeal to providence? Why do the manuals of moral theology not downplay human responsibility because of divine providence? The Catholic tradition in general, Thomistic philosophy and theol- ogy, and the very nature of the manuals of moral theology all help to explain why the manuals of moral theology emphasize the human responsibility of the agent and do not lessen or change this responsibility in the light of divine providence. The Catholic theological tradition has consistently and characteristically em- phasized the role of the human and its significance. Protestant thought has often accused Catholic moral theology of not giving enough importance to the divine. The perennial danger for Catholicism has not been quietism or passivity but Pe- lagianism. The Catholic temptation has been to give too much importance to the human and to downplay the divine role in human action. At its best, the Catholic tradition is insistent on the importance of mediation. The divine is mediated in and through the human. Thus in moral theology one should rightly expect that God does not act directly and immediately in the world but in and through the human. Likewise, human beings must accept full responsibility for their actions. The Thomistic tradition explicates the meaning of mediation in areas of im- portance to moral theology and in its understanding of providence. Anthropology, natural law, and an intrinsic understanding of morality develop the concept of me- diation in Catholic thought as exemplified in the work of Thomas Aquinas. The divine is not seen as subtracting from full human responsibility. The first part of the Summa of Thomas Aquinas treats of God, while the second part turns its at- tention to human beings. Aquinas' prologue to the Prima Secundae spells out the Thomistic anthropology—the human being is an image of God precisely in so far as the human being is endowed with intellect, free will, and the power of self- determination.2 The human being images God not by obeying God's law but by being the principle of one's own action through intellect and free will. The Thom- istic position on anthropology thus avoids the two extremes of a pseudo-Augus- tinianism, which sees the human being as really moved extrinsically by God, and a philosophical Aristotelianism, which sees the human being as the principle of one's own actions without any relationship to God. Aquinas brings the divine and the human together by seeing the human being as an image of and participation in the divine to the extent that the human being is the principle of one's own oper- ations and actions through intellect and free will. 'Anne E. Patrick, "Dimensions of the Abortion Debate," in Patricia Beattie Jung and Thomas A. Shannon, eds., Abortion and Catholicism: The American Debate (New York- Crossroad, 1988)177. ^Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae (Rome: Marietti, 1952)IaIIae, Prologue, 1. Providence and Responsibility 45 Natural law is not the primary ethical categoiy for Thomas Aquinas, but it does occupy a significant position in his thought.3 For Thomas Aquinas, divine prov- idence works in and through the natural law. The world is governed by divine providence. This plan of God for the world can properly be called the eternal law because law is the dictate of practical reason in the one who governs. Human beings as rational creatures are subject to divine providence in a most excellent way, in so far as they partake of a share of providence by being provident both for them- selves and for others. Since human beings have a natural inclination to their proper act and end, they participate in eternal reason. This participation of the eternal law in the rational creature is called the natural law. Providence works in and through the natural law and in no way can be seen in opposition to the natural law.41 think the most accurate and succinct statement of Thomistic natural law is the follow- ing—human reason directing human beings to their end in accord with their na- ture. According to this understanding, the plan of God for the world is mediated in and through the natural law. Human beings alone are responsible for determin- ing how to act in this world and the norm of such action is based on human reason reflecting on human nature. The responsibility rests with the human being to dis- cover what is morally good and to act in accord with the good. The intrinsic character of Thomistic ethics stands out from the very structure of the ethical discussion in the Prima Secundae of the Summa. The treatise begins with the question of the ultimate end of human beings.5 The answer to this ques- tion is happiness. Morality is not something imposed from outside by a divine de- cree or command but rather the true self-fiilfillment of the human being. Happiness means that one has come to the fulfillment of one's own nature. The principle of finality as one of the cornerstones of Thomistic ethics brings into sharp relief the intrinsic character of this moral theory. Thomistic morality has been attacked for being eudaimonistic, but this very charge certainly highlights the intrinsic char- acter of Thomistic morality. Morality is not something imposed from the outside but rather involves what is good for the human being. Thomas Aquinas strongly opposes an extrinsic understanding of morality ac- cording to which something is good because it is commanded. For Aquinas, something is commanded because it is good. The Thomistic understanding of law well illustrates the intrinsic nature of Thomistic morality.6 Law is not primarily an act of the will of the legislator but an act of reason ordering to the common good. Voluntaristic approaches tend to be extrinsicist, but the emphasis in Aquinas is on human reason and its role. Thus the eternal law is God's ordering which is made known by human reasoning in the natural law. An intrinsic morality based on hu- man reason mediating the divine reason puts the understanding of the moral re- quirement squarely and fully in the hands of the human agent. I personally have criticized a number of aspects of Thomistic ethics but not its emphasis on mediation and the general approaches which fill out mediation in eth- ics. Thomistic thought lacks historical consciousness and a more historical appre- 'Ibid., q.94. "Ibid., q.91, a.1,2. sIbid., q.l. 6Ibid.,q.90. 46 CTS A Proceedings 44 /1989 ciation of human development.
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