Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #201517 in Books
• Published on: 1936-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 382 pages

Customer Reviews

One book - and one bottle of aspirin later ...
Yes, this is about as scholarly a work as you will ever read on one of the most perplexing paradoxes in all of Christian theology - the omnipotent, sovereign God versus man's free will.

And Father Garrigou-LaGrange explains it well in this book. His 50-plus years of teaching at the highest levels shows itself, as the book is excellently written and the materially is expertly outlined and presented.

He starts with a few basic principles with which all conclusions about predestination must adhere, for example:
- That God wills to save all men and that He predestines nobody to damnation
- That all we have we have received from God
- That God works in man to will and accomplish according to His good will, yet our will is still free
- That God wills nothing that is impossible (not even His command to obey the commandments)
- That no created being would be better than another if God did not will a greater good for that being (predilection)
- That God is the cause of all good and the author of NO evil
- and much more.

Then, by applying the above principles he refutes the predestination teachings of the Pelagians, Semi-Pelagians, Molinists, Jansenists, and protestants. He follows with explanations of the Catholic (Augustinian and Thomistic) view and answers to objections.

But this book is not an easy read, seemingly having been written for educated people - priests, professors, and seminarians. It is well worth your time and effort (have some aspirin ready, though, for the inevitable headaches!).

On a side note, this book was a pleasure to read because it is classic Catholic theology written by a great teacher in classic Catholic style - heavy on theology and light on sarcastic criticism. Let us point out where we are right; let us explain where the others are wrong. Let us reconcile those passages of Scripture which SEEM to contradict; let us see how, when thoroughly examined, those passages harmonize and give us God's own truth. Let us not, as many protestants (sadly) do, take hold of one side of the paradox, and ignore or demote the other. It is a book like this that shows how the Catholic Church is truly Biblical on account of its acceptance of ALL Scripture as inspired; on account of its refusal to ignore or demote passages which do not fit into a pre-conceived interpretation; and its refusal to elevate one Biblical author (Paul, for example) over another or over all of the rest.

Five stars.

The one book every Reformed Protestant should read!
I must admit that I approached Father Lagrange's work with skepticism, but after I finished his work on the difficult issue of Predestination I was completely stunned. Being from the Reformed tradition I strongly believe in the doctrines of election and predestination and affirm that they are biblical tenets of the faith. Nevertheless, I was compeletely uninformed concerning the two schools of thought on this issue which exist within the Catholic Church. The first school is the Molinist school which is very similar in many respects to Protestant Arminianism, while the second is the Augustinian/Thomistic school, which is very similar to Protestant Calvinism. Although I knew that the Church was very Molinist in it's practices, I did not know where these practices originated from. Furthermore, I was completely unaware that there were many who still believed in traditional Augustinian ideas regarding grace and predestination.

Lagrange begins his work by laying out the history of the doctrine of predestination in the Church. He starts by analyzing scripture then works his way up through history analyzing the writings of many of the Church's greatest theologians who wrote about predestination including, Augustine, Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Bellarmine, Suarez, Molina, and many others. Lagrange shows that several of the councils convened in the sixth century to deal with the issue of election did in fact support the Augustinian viewpoint. Father Lagrange uses documented evidence from the Coucil of Orange to show how the Church of the 6th century condemned Pelagianism and Semi-pelagianism and upheld traditional Augustinianism.

In the second part of this book Lagrange sets out to uphold and clarify the traditional Thomistic teaching on predestination. Many of his arguments were fascinating and intriguing. I love his work on the doctrines of grace and premotion. Lagrange argues that grace does not destroy free will, but perfects it and that grace is not irresistable but instrinsically efficacious. Lagrange emphatically affirms the absolute gratuity of predestination and constantly makes reference to the same quote of Augustine which states "No one thing would be better than another, unless it were loved more by God." According to Lagrange, the only reason one individual chooses God and another does not is because God has loved the one more than the other. It is a hard truth indeed, but one that is ratified by scripture.

The one negative side to this book is that it does contain a lot of vague and intellectual terminology. It may be hard for anyone who is not familiar with Augustine and Aquinas to follow Lagrange's reasoning since he continually refers to their writings and their ideas. Nevertheless, this book is a valuable resource for anyone wishing to understand the other Catholic school of thought on predestination. Every Reformed Protestant should read this book in order to understand that not all Catholics adhere to the Molinist train of thought; The Catholic Church has in fact taught predestination throughout it's 2,000 history and this is beautifully illustrated by Father Lagrange.

Review from the Publisher
Gives a masterful theological exposition of the classic Thomastic teaching on this, the most difficult of all theological tracts, showing the reconciliation - as far as it can be understood on this side of the Beatific Vision - of the various elements of the Church's teaching on Predestination. Based on Scripture and Tradition, this book gives the history of Catholic thought on this topic, showing how centuries of Catholic theologians have wrestled to reconcile the two truths of divine predilection and the damnation of souls. Explains the teachings of Sts. Augustine, St. Anselm, Peter Lombard, St. Bonaventure, St. Albert the Great, Duns Scotus, St. Robert Bellarmine, Suarez, etc. He also analyzes the problems with Molinism, Congruism, Pelagianism, Semi-Pelagianism, Protestantism (Luther, Zwingli, Calvin), Baianism and Jansenism.

Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange sheds the great light of St. Thomas Aquinas on these questions, emphasizing the gratuity of Predestination and the absolutely fundamental principle of hte divine predilection. He also covers efficacious and sufficient grace, free will, God's antecedent and consequent will, His justice, His mercy, and the question of whether foreknowledge of merits is the cause of predestination. This book is a magnificent exposition for serious students and for all seekign a deep, theological understanding of the Catholic myster of Predestination. 382 pages, PB. Imprimatur.