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Thursday 1 January 2015

Slavery of the Will; Freedom of the Will Part Eight Bullet Points


As two people requested bullet points, here are a few. and will be continued...help from Garrigou-Lagrange on this list as it is an expansion of a graph in his book, Grace.

Think of the confusion regarding the wording of the synodal document.


  • Catholic teaching-God does not ask the impossible as noted by St. Augustine, so all men can be saved through sufficient grace. God gives efficacious grace. Because of the sacrifice on the Cross, God wills all men to be saved. Not clear in the synodal papers.
  • Catholic teaching-God gives us grace to be saved and become holy-gratuitous grace; complete gift and never merited. Predilection means that God gives more to the humble, to those who seek Him. Love comes from the will and Truth from the intellect, as God gives more and more grace to the humble. Not covered in the synodal papers.
  • Suarez on congruism, which I did not cover, but which is found both in Garrigou-Lagrange's book Grace and other sources, such as CE. I do not think this falls into the faulty thinking in the Synod.
  • Thomistic position, all grace is efficacious and enlightens the will. Will follows grace. Not addressed in the pastoral approaches in the synodal papers.
  • Molinists, not all grace is efficacious in and of itself-problem with libertarian will and question of previous merit. Falls into earning salvation too easily.
  • Thomism and Augustinism on predestination, which indicates few are saved, despite grace given to all for salvation. The will follows grace. Implied in the synodal papers.
  • Semi-Pelagianism-nature brings about conversion without grace; grace coming later. Another aspect of Gradualism and more than implied in the synodal papers.
  • Jansenism-opposite heresy to Molina in that this heresy denies the use of free will entirely and that grace cannot be resisted and does not need a person's assent, or conversion. Implied in the synodal papers.
  • Pelagianism-grace is not necessary for conversion or holiness and denial of Original Sin. How many of the laity are reading the Synod because many of the laity believe in this heresy.
  • Predestinarianism-some people are predestined for hell and salvation is not for all. Few consider this.
Now, obviously, only the Molinist, Semi-Pelagian, Pelagian and Jansenist positions, imho, are infecting the Synod. 

To allow those who do not want to convert to receive Communion, or to continue in same-sex relationships is a position ignoring both Catholic teaching, Thomism and Augustinianism.

I blame the lack of seminary training and the inclusion of heretical ideas in theological studies, not to contradict but to absorb, as one root of the problem.

What the heresies of Jansenism, Pelagianism, gradualism, Semi-Pelagianism and Molinism have in common is the misunderstanding of grace and the misunderstanding of mercy and justice.