A Companion to Luis de Molina ed. by Matthias Kaufmann, Alexander Aichele (review)

There has been a revival of interest, particularly in the English-speaking world, in the philosophical work of sixteenth-century Jesuit theologian, Luis de Molina, due in no small part to Alvin Plantinga’s work on the free will defense. Most discussion focuses on abstract questions regarding counterfactuals of creaturely freedom, their truth, and their usefulness to God (if true), but little attention is given to Molina or his actual arguments. This volume seeks to identify the concepts and arguments—philosophical, theological, economic, and legal—that owe their fame to Molina, since he rarely gets his due (xiv), by offering an assortment of essays on the core ideas of Molina’s chief works, Concordia and De Justitia et Iure.

The essays by Aichele, Petr Dvorak, and Juan Cruz Cruz seek to address the most controversial aspects of Molina’s theological work. Aichele clearly outlines Molina’s arguments for free will and his concern to avoid Pelagianism on the one hand, and determinism (i.e. Lutheranism/Calvinism) on the other. Dvorak’s essay addresses Molina’s contribution to the problem of divine foreknowledge, providence, and future contingents/creaturely freedom by contextualizing Molina’s own work at the intersection of the late medieval/early modern eras and speaking to the influence of Thomas Aquinas on Molina. Especially helpful is Dvorak’s attention to Molina’s much-ignored and maligned proposal of supercomprehension as the ground for divine knowledge of future contingents. Although his Aristotelian base led him to require a causal connection between future contingents and God’s knowledge of them, and to view the traditional Jesuit approach (represented by Pedro de Fonseca) as destructive of divine freedom, this proposal allowed Molina to avoid appeal to divine causation as the grounds for God’s knowledge of these contingents. Cruz clarifies the discussion of efficacious grace and predestination within the Jesuit order, where emphasis was placed upon forging a middle road between merit-based grace (Francisco de Toledo, Leonard Lessius, and Gabriel Vásquez) and determining grace (Gregorio de Valencia). Middle knowledge was key to this effort, though Claudio Aquaviva settled closer to Francisco Suárez’s and Roberto Bellarmino’s positions than to Molina’s.

The volume certainly meets its goal in its discussion of justice, economics, and human and property rights. Molina’s contributions in these areas place him in neither medieval nor modern spheres. He represents, rather, a bridge between the two, developing Thomas’s ideas, but also breaking with forebears such as Francisco de Vitorio and Alfonso de Castro; and the work quite nicely explains Molina’s place as a key figure effecting the transition of both church and society politic from one to the other. For example, Kaufmann notes that Molina’s views on slavery move beyond medieval but fall short of modern sensibilities. Thus, Rudolf Schüssler follows Wilhelm Weber in dubbing Molina the “‘apex and completion’ of scholastic economic ethics ‘at the eve of liberalism” (285).

The essays on the influence of Aquinas and John Duns Scotus on Molina were needed to anchor the volume, but unfortunately fall short of this expectation. Particularly disappointing is Romanus Cessario’s contribution, which purports to outline the relationship of Molina’s thought to that of Aquinas, but instead reads like an extended critique of Molina. Not only does Cessario impugn Molina’s honesty in his claims to expound on Thomas (accusing him of covertly battling Aquinas in his critique of Francisco Zumal and Domingo Bañez), he also charges Molina with Pelagianism. In the section entitled “Molina’s views,” he hardly touches upon Molina’s work, offering instead his own critique of libertarian freedom. Cessario’s sympathies clearly lie with Bañez. A careful and charitable analysis of Molina’s appropriation and development of Thomistic themes await another hand. Jean-Pascal Anfray’s chapter on Molina and Scotus is well-written and informative, but seems overly concerned with Scotist theology. Although it mentions Molina’s views and his...