The History of Christian Theology

Lecture 33: Catholic Theologies of Grace

we will persevere to the end and be saved, or the certainty that we are elect

and predestined for salvation. Faith may include the certainty that Christian

doctrine and God’s word are true, but lack of certainty in these other areas

does not amount to doubting the word or promises of God.

After the Council of Trent, Catholicism began the process of sorting out

its own doctrine of grace on its own terms, apart from Protestantism. The

teachings of Michael Baius, Catholic professor at Louvain, were condemned

in 1567 because they rejected the concept of the supernatural and resulted

in a nearly Lutheran doctrine of sin and grace. For Aquinas, the original

righteousness lost by original sin was a supernatural gift, so that losing it did

not destroy the integrity of human nature. For Baius, original righteousness

belonged to human nature, so that the loss of it meant human nature lost

something essential, and was no longer capable of anything morally good.

Baius’s teaching on the incapacity of human

nature echoes themes from Luther, for

example, that our free will avails only to sin

and no sin is really venial.

Teachings attributed to Cornelius Jansen,

bishop of Ypres, in his book on Augustine,

were condemned because they resulted in a

nearly Calvinist view of sin and grace. One

of the propositions, like Baius and Luther, taught that we can be responsible

for sin even if we sin from necessity. Another proposition comes very close

to the Calvinist doctrine of irresistible grace. In another proposition, God is

said sometimes to command the impossible—a notion already condemned

by Trent. One proposition af¿ rms something very much like Dordt’s doctrine

of limited atonement.

The Congregatio de Auxiliis debates between Dominicans (Thomists) and the

Jesuits (Molinists) concerned the help of grace and the role of the will. The

Jesuits were strong advocates of free will, but the Dominicans had a more

pessimistic, Augustinian attitude towards the power of the will. The Jesuits,

like the Arminians, believed the choice to be saved is ultimately up to us. Like

the Dominicans, Jesuits believed that God’s grace is infallibly ef¿ cacious,

but can be resisted by the will. Their chief theologian in the debate, Luis de

The Jesuits, like the

Arminians, believed the

choice to be saved is

ultimately up to us.