The Thomistic Institute Aquinas's Interpretation of Predestination in Scripture – Fr. Piotr Roszak
Dec 17, 2025
Fr. Piotr Roszak, an expert in Thomistic and biblical theology, discusses Aquinas's interpretation of predestination, emphasizing its biblical foundation. He explains how predestination reflects God's merciful love and freedom, rather than deterministic causes. Roszak also explores key biblical motifs, such as the Book of Life, and Aquinas's balance of divine causality with human cooperation. He highlights Christ as central to predestination and stresses that the ultimate goal is friendship with God, inviting listeners to rethink this profound doctrine.
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Hometown Analogy For Context Loss
- Fr. Piotr Roszak gives a hometown analogy: transplanting a capital building loses its context.
- The example shows how removing biblical context distorts predestination's meaning.
Predestination Focuses On Final Ends
- For Aquinas predestination primarily concerns final causes—the ordering of creation toward a supernatural end.
- He then uses philosophical tools to explain how divine knowledge and contingency fit that ordering.
Love Is Ground Of Election
- Aquinas follows Paul: love precedes election and predestination flows from God's very essence.
- Divine simplicity makes predestination a necessary outflow of who God is, not arbitrary choice.