FREE WILL AND PROVIDENCE, a fundamental philosophical and
theological problem which results form the dual
affirmation of volitional freedom and God's omniscience
and omnipotence. ......................................
In Scripture, the two aspects of the problem are clearly
affirmed: God is the almightily ruler of heaven and earth
who knows all things (Ps 93:9), causes all things (Job
10.12), and directs the course of history (Is 2.2-9); and
a man is a free agent, responsible for what he does,
subject to an ultimate reward or punishment (Mt 6.14-18).
In characteristic Semitic fashion, however, no attempt is
made to reconcile these two elements of revelation.
But the early Christian Fathers did make such an attempt.
Augustine's efforts depend upon two key concepts: that
evil is not something positive but negative, and that God's
omniscience is not the same as advance human understanding,
but is based upon the eternity of God according to which
earthly events are not progressively known to him but are
always present. Scholastic theology deepened Augustine's
insight into God's eternal "now," but also developed a
further explanation based upon primary and secondary
causality. God acts in all things according to their
created essence; thus he acts in man as the primary cause,
without who me there could be no action whatsoever, but
according to the free nature of man who retains a true but
secondary causality......................................
(T.McFADDEN).
GRACE, EFFICACIOUS, a term used primarily to signify a
grace that infallibly moves a man to perform an act
leading to salvation while leaving him perfectly free to
consent or resist. It is an actual grace, i.e., a help
conceived of as an impulse or a movement bestowed on the
recipient. An efficacious grace not only gives a man
power to act but unfailingly secures the free use of that
power. It is efficacious, therefore, not merely in the
event of man's cooperation but from the moment it is given
by God, before man's consent is given.
The difficult problem of grace that efficaciously brings
about the will's consent and still leaves the freedom of
the will intact has vexed theologians for many centuries.
(T.J. MOTHERWAY)
Now I shall give you some passages from Church teaching
documents, noting that the Church insists that two truths be
safeguarded: the dominion of God over man's actions and the
freedom of man's will.
1) From the "Indiculus", a catalog of papal pronouncement on
on grace and original sin (A.D. 435-442):
Chapter 9. ... By these ecclesiastical norms and these
documents derived from divine authority, we are so
strengthened with the help of the Lord, that we profess that
God is the author of all good desires and deeds, of all
efforts and virtues, with which from the beginning of faith
man tends to God. And we do not doubt that his grace
anticipates every one of man's merits, and that it is through
him that we begin both the will and the performance (see
Phil. 2:13) of any good work. To be sure, free will is not
destroyed by this help and strength from God, but it is
freed; so that from darkness it is brought to light, from
evil to good, from sickness to health, from ignorance to
prudence. For such is God's goodness to men that he wills
that his gifts be our merits, and that he will grant us an
eternal reward for what he has given us. Indeed, God so acts
in us that we both will and do what he wills; he does not
allow to lie idle in us what he bestowed upon us to be
employed, not neglected. And he acts in this manner in us so
that we are cooperators with his grace. And if we notice that
there is some weakness in us because of our own negligence,
we should with all care hasten to him who heals all our
diseases and redeems our lives from destruction (see Ps.
102:3 f.), and to whom we say each day, "Lead us not into
temptation but deliver us from evil" (Matt. 6:13).
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