What happens in justification and is it instantaneous? In ST IaIIae q. 113, a. 6, Thomas answers that there are four things necessary for justification of the wicked:

In this fourth post in our series on Aquinas and the Council of Trent, I examine what St. Thomas Aquinas says about another effect of sin, namely, stain in the soul. How does sin cause a stain in the soul? What is this stain? Is it caused by all sins or only mortal sins? Does […]

Please comment on Sean Patrick’s “Sola Gratia” article here.

Many Protestants object to the Church’s teaching on a variety of matters, not least of which is her teaching on the Blessed Virgin Mary, by saying, “Where do you find that in the Bible?” As has been noted by many others, Protestants included, doctrine and practice are not usually defined on the basis of a […]

In this third post in this series, I examine what St. Thomas Aquinas says about the effects of sin, and in particular his discussion of the corruption of human nature by sin. Is human nature entirely corrupted by sin? If not, how can human nature be partly corrupted and partly uncorrupted by sin? What are […]

I’m prone to distrust doctrinal claims that would leave the majority of Christians throughout history as heretics. A strict Memorialism, the view that the Body & Blood are spoken of the Eucharistic species in a purely figurative way, does just that; for it makes Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans and Calvinists supremely wrong about the […]

The Divine goodness is the end of all corporeal things because the entire universe, with all its parts, is ordained towards God as its end, inasmuch as it imitates, as it were, and shows forth the Divine goodness, to the glory of God. Reasonable creatures, however, have in some special and higher manner God as […]

Catholicism seemed like the last religion on the earth that I would ever embrace. In embracing the Gospel as understood by most Protestants, I affirmed that the Gospel was all about giving God glory, and to Him alone. If I were to sit down and choose a faith that looked Christian but missed this central […]

Before I talk about the fifth session of the Council of Trent, I will do two things. First, I will offer a brief summary of Aquinas’ teaching in his Summa Theologiae regarding the essence of original sin. Following that, I will give a short overview of what Aquinas says about the effects of sin. So […]

It is quite difficult to distinguish God’s actions from those of his creatures. Some think that God does everything; others imagine that he only conserves the force he has given to created things. How far can we say either of these opinions is right? – Leibniz, Discourse on Metaphysics VIII