The Development of the Thought of Thomas Aquinas on the Reconciliation of Divine Providence and Contingent Action

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE THOUGHT OF THOMAS AQUINAS ON THE RECONCILIATION OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE AND CONTINGENT ACTION IF THE END of wisdom is to put things in their proper order, perhaps no finer illustration of such ordering wisdom is to be found than in the monumental work of Thomas Aquinas in balancing the elements of Christian revelation with the inherent possibilities of the Aristotelian philosophical system to achieve an increased intelligibility of what God has revealed to man. To appreciate the finesse of this achievement, however, we must analyze and particularize, break problems down into their component parts, retrace their history, and attempt to reassemble them as they were once understood in successive contexts in the mind of Thomas. One of the most challenging problems that confronted Aquinas in his daring effort to adapt Aristotelianism to Christianity was the problem of contingency. Aristotle had affirmed the contingency of human activity as a refutation of determinism . By his appeal to the per accidens (viz., chance combinations and interferences of causes), he felt that he had destroyed the two premises of determinism: first, that every effect has a per se, or necessary, cause; and second, that granted the cause, the effect must necessarily follow.1 Unfortunately for Aquinas, Aristotle's position on contingency led him to a negation of divine providence unacceptable to a Christian thinker. In his basic indifference to the world, the Aristotelian Prime Mover is a far cry from the God of Abraham and Isaac. The dilemma Thomas was confronted with is a good illustration of the difficult position in which medieval theologians who de1 The basic texts in Aristotle are Metaphysies D, 6, 7, 30; E, ~. 3. 741 742 BERNARD MCGINN pended upon Aristotle frequently found themselves-to deny the certitude of divine providence was impossible, but did one have to relinquish Aristotle's victory over determinism as well and seek its flefutation on other grounds? Aquinas, of course, viewed these problems basically as a theologian and within the context of a series of interconnected theological problems. Father Bernard Lonergan, S. J., in his investigation of the Thomistic theology of grace 2 has shown that it is impossible to understand how Thomas handled the delicate problem of gratia operans and gratia cooperans, unless some of the basic philosophical pr.esuppositions underlying his treatment are clearly understood. Among these presuppositions are the analogy of operation, the theory of instrumentality, a fully evolv.ed notion of the freedom of the will, and a position on the problem of contingency that enabled him to preserve the solution of Aristotle without negating the Christian doctrine of providence.3 This position Lonergan terms the " theorem of divine transcendence." 4 Although Aquinas' solution finds its fullest expression in the Commentarium in Perihermeneias, lect. 14, it is a tribute to his speculative genius that the basic position is already clear as early as his Commentarium in Sententias Petri Lombardi (c. 1252-1256) . The task of this study is to examine the nature of the theorem of divine transcendence as expressed in four key texts, attempting to explain its significance and to show the advances made in its expression and comprehension. • Grace and Freedom. Operative Grace in the Thought of Thomas Aquinas (London-New York: 1971). Based on the author's dissertation, this study first appeared as a series of articles, "Thomas' Thought on Gratia Operans," Theological Studies ~ (1941), ~89-3~4; 3 (194~), 69-88, 375-402. Any reader of this seminal work will recognize the indebtedness of the present study to the main lines of interpretation suggested there; indeed, it grows out of seminar work begun under Fr. Lonergan's direction. 8 Grace and Freedom, "Concluding Summary," 139-145. (References will be to the book throughout.) ~ Op. cit., 79. " Theorem " here is used in the sense of " exact technical expressions of one's scientific understanding." Cf. D. Tracy, The Achievement of Bernard Lonergan (New York: 1970), p. 43. DEVELOPMENT OF THE THOUGHT OF THOMAS AQUINAS 743 I. Commentarium in Sententias Petri Lombardi. Because the theorem of divine transcendence is basically a solution that reconciles antitheses it is usually expressed in two parallel contexts, the first concerned with the possibility of contingency or with the...