Divine Causality and Human Free Choice

Domingo Báñez, Physical Premotion and the Controversy de Auxiliis Revisited
Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-90-04-31030-8
Verlag: Brill Academic Publishers

Buch, Englisch, Band 252, 366 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 729 g

Reihe: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History

In Divine Causality and Human Free Choice, R.J. Matava explains the idea of physical premotion defended by Domingo Báñez, whose position in the Controversy de Auxiliis has been typically ignored in contemporary discussions of providence and freewill. Through a close engagement with untranslated primary texts, Matava shows Báñez’s relevance to recent debates about middle knowledge. Finding the mutual critiques of Báñez and Molina convincing, Matava argues that common presuppositions led both parties into an insoluble dilemma. However, Matava also challenges the informal consensus that Lonergan definitively resolved the controversy. Developing a position independently advanced by several recent scholars, Matava explains how the doctrine of creation entails a position that is more satisfactory both philosophically and as a reading of Aquinas.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Matava, Robert Joseph

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Mittelalterliche & Scholastische Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Systematische Theologie Christliche Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Systematische Theologie Geschichte der Theologie, Einzelne Theologen
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABBREVIATIONS

PROLOGUE
1. Framing the question
2. The aim and scope of this study
3. Rationale
4. The form of this study

CHAPTER ONE
An Historical Introduction to the Controversy de Auxiliis
1. The first period: Open scholarly engagement (1582-1594)
2. The second period: Papal intervention and the Congregatio de Auxiliis (1594-1607)
3. Resurgences

CHAPTER TWO
Domingo Báñez on Divine Causality and Human Free Choice
1. Divine art: The idea of physical premotion
2. Báñez on free choice
3. Human freedom, physical premotion and sin
4. Conclusion

CHAPTER THREE
Domingo Báñez’s Critique of Molina
1. Molina’s teaching on free choice, divine causality and providence
2. A survey and condensation of Báñez’s critique of Molinism
3. Báñez’s critique of Molina’s doctrine of free choice and divine causality
4. Báñez’s critique of middle knowledge

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER THREE
Do the limitations of correspondence-type truth theories undermine the grounding objection?
1. The position of Trenton Merricks
2. Does Merricks’s position undercut the grounding objection?

CHAPTER FOUR
Luis de Molina’s Critique of Báñez
1. The historical context of Molina’s condemnation of Báñez
2. The central issue of dispute: Báñez’s view on the efficacy of divine causality
3. Three problematic outworkings of Báñez’s view on the efficacy of divine causality
4. The root of the problem: God predetermines all human actions
5. Conclusion

CHAPTER FIVE
Physical Premotion or Aristotelian Premotion? The Proposal of Bernard Lonergan
1. Lonergan’s critique of Báñez
2. Lonergan’s interpretation of Aquinas
3. A constructive critique of Lonergan’s interpretation
4. Conclusion

CHAPTER SIX
Creation, Causal Priority and Human Freedom: Revisiting Thomas Aquinas
1. The thesis that Aquinas understands God’s motion of the human will as an exercise of God’s creative causality
2. A textual argument for understanding God’s motion of the human will as an exercise of his creative causality
3. Aquinas on the status of God’s creative action: An exposition of ST I q. 45 a. 3
4. Conclusion

CHAPTER SEVEN
God Creates Human Free Choices: An Explanation and Defense
1. Literary origins of the view
2. What it means to say human acts of free choice are created by God
3. Five potential objections briefly considered
4. A Suarezian objection and counterproposal: Divine concurrence revisited
5. Conclusion

EPILOGUE

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Über Autor(innen)

R.J. Matava, Ph. D. (2010), St. Andrews, is Assistant Professor of Theology at Christendom College. He was a research fellow at the Center for Medieval Philosophy, Georgetown University and the Liddon Fellow in Theology at Keble College, University of Oxford.