Thomas Aquinas on Grace as a Mysterious Kind of Creature

• Authors: Polsky Elliot
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Although the question of whether, in the thought of Thomas Aquinas, sanctifying grace is “created” or “uncreated” has received considerable attention in the last several decades, many of the questions and arguments proposed by those, such as Karl Rahner, Jerome Ebacher, and Anna N. Williams, in favor of grace being uncreated have gone unanswered. Among these ancillary questions and arguments are those concerning the proper subject of grace, the categorial classification of grace, and the reason for the mystery and unconsciousness of grace. These questions appear unrelated, but, as this paper argues, they are each logically connected to each other and to the overall thesis that sanctifying grace is created, not uncreated. This paper aims to make Aquinas’s thesis that grace is created more palatable to objectors by addressing each of these previously unaddressed ancillary questions.

Keywords

EN

Thomas Aquinas; Karl Rahner; Anna N. Williams; Thomistic metaphysics; Aristotle’s categories; grace; justification; divinization

• Publisher: International Étienne Gilson Society
• Journal: Studia Gilsoniana
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 545-578

Dates

published

2021-09-30

Contributors

author

Polsky Elliot

• University of St. Thomas, Houston, Tex., USA

References

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