Intellectual Catholicism God and Free Will DON'T Conflict - W. Matthews Grant & Christopher Tomaszewski
May 28, 2025
Christopher Tomaszewski, a Resident Thomist and professor at Belmont Abbey, and W. Matthews Grant from the University of St. Thomas, delve into the intriguing dynamics of free will and divine causality. They explore how God's universal influence can coexist with human agency, questioning theological determinism within Catholic thought. The discussion highlights various philosophical perspectives, including compatibilism and libertarian free will, while addressing the nature of divine intentions and moral responsibility. Expect deep insights into God's role in human choices!
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Tomaszewski’s Journey on Divine Simplicity
- Christopher Tomaszewski traces his interest in divine simplicity to arguments about modal collapse and how God’s simplicity entails necessity.
- He explains that this led him to rethink how divine simplicity influences understanding God’s control over free human choices.
Extrinsic Agency Aligns with Aristotle
- Extrinsic divine agency aligns with Aristotle’s general account of agency where the agent's act is in the patient, not requiring intrinsic accidents.
- This idea resolves problems in divine simplicity and allows God’s agency to avoid introducing prior determining factors.
Challenge of Explaining Contingency
- The worry arises about what explains differences across possible worlds if God is intrinsically the same in all of them.
- God can cause things without determining them, but human understanding of causal control often assumes determinative causation, which complicates divine agency.
