Thomas Aquinas on the Predestination of Christ
In this article, I examine the development of Thomas's doctrine of the predestination of Christ against the broader backdrop of thirteenth-century scholasticism, highlighting its distinctively Christocentric character. Pauline texts (Eph. 1:4; Rom. 8:29) speaking of our predestination in and th...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Modern theology
Year: 2025, Volume: 41, Issue: 4, Pages: 684-705 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | In this article, I examine the development of Thomas's doctrine of the predestination of Christ against the broader backdrop of thirteenth-century scholasticism, highlighting its distinctively Christocentric character. Pauline texts (Eph. 1:4; Rom. 8:29) speaking of our predestination in and through Christ, along with a text from Augustine's late work, De praedestinatione sanctorum, which describes Christ as the “clearest light of predestination and grace,” require the scholastics of this period to affirm the causality of Christ's predestination. Such an affirmation, however, seems to contradict the eternal character of predestination. In the process of treating this difficulty, two distinct approaches emerge: what I refer to as the “Halensian distinction” and the “Thomasian distinction.” Through the former, Alexander of Hales, the authors of the Summa Halensis and Bonaventure are led, unwittingly, to deny any true causal role for Christ's predestination as such. Far from considering Christ's predestination, these thinkers end up speaking only of Christ as predestined, in time. While this approach preserves the eternal character of predestination, it does so by minimizing the role of Christ in God's pre-ordained plan. By contrast, Thomas's mature doctrine maintains the eternal character of predestination without, however, minimizing Christ's central role in it. For Thomas, it is impossible to consider the predestination of human beings to salvation without considering in concreto its orientation towards and fulfillment in Christ. In re-conceiving the doctrine of Christ's predestination, Thomas not only accounts for the relevant Pauline texts, but also recovers the original sense of Augustine's phrase, that Christ is the clearest light of predestination and grace. Against this backdrop, we are able to appreciate more fully the distinctively Christocentric character of Thomas's doctrine of Christ's predestination. |
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| ISSN: | 1468-0025 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Modern theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/moth.12987 |