Autor: Stebbins, J. Michael

Buch: The Divine Initiative

Titel: The Divine Initiative

Stichwort: Thomas: Freiheit - Gnade; Beziehung: gratia sanans, Konversion; Sünde - Trägheit;

Kurzinhalt: Conversion - here is a need for divine grace to move the will to willing a new end; in turn, the willing of that end prompts the will freely to choose means that

Textausschnitt: eg: der frühe Thomas: At this early stage of Aquinas's thought, there is no explicit advertence to the need for gratia sanans. But Lonergan sees a shift occurring in the De veritate, (siehe unten)
Lonergan (Meinungsänderung Thomas' bezüglich der gratia sanans) aufgrund:

1) Änderung in des Willens hinsichtlich des letzten Zieles
2) Trägheitsgesetzt der Sünde
3) Beständigkeit des Willens


60/3 In his commentary on the Sentences, Aquinas follows the example of his teacher Albert in explaining the necessity of grace entirely in terms of the disproportion between human nature and its supernatural end. He contends that since humans are free, they do not sin of necessity: they can, if they so choose, avoid each instance of sin without the help of grace; since they can avoid each, they can avoid all. Hence he takes Peter Lombard's non posse non peccare, which describes the state of human liberty after the fall, to mean only that the sinner cannot be forgiven except by grace. At this early stage of Aquinas's thought, there is no explicit advertence to the need for gratia sanans. But Lonergan sees a shift occurring in the De veritate, where Aquinas cites Augustine's denunciation of the Pelagian claim that grace is necessary only for the forgiveness of past sins and not for the avoidance of future sins; from this point on, Aquinas, apparently having recognized the error of his previous view, gradually works out an understanding of the human being's inability to do good without grace. The problem to be met, of course, was how to reconcile this necessity of grace with the fact of human freedom (GO:215). (87f; Fs) (notabene)
61/3 Lonergan outlines Aquinas's developed position on the issue as follows. To begin with, although human beings naturally desire the good, their potentiality is so indeterminate that for the most part they do what is wrong if left to their own devices. Thus, there is a need for grace to make our desire for the good efficacious, particularly through the infusion of habits that enable us to choose our connatural and supernatural good (GO:215-21; GF:41-46). (88; Fs)