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Divine Causality and Human Free Choice: Domingo Báñez, Physical Premotion and the Controversy de Auxiliis Revisited
R.J. Matava, PhD 2010
In Divine Causality and Human Free Choice, R.J. Matava explains the doctrine 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.
The Controversy de Auxiliis was the Catholic instantiation of an intra-confessional theological dispute about the relationship between grace and human freewill that took place during the post-Reformation period. It was terminated by the Holy See with no definitive resolution over four centuries ago and remains unresolved to this day.
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.
ISBN: 978-90-04-31030-8
