A Short Primer On Beatitudo In Aquinas

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A Short Primer on Beatitudo in Aquinas

W. H. Marshner

(A) The sense of ‘beatitudo’.

The first job is to determine what ‘beatitudo’ meant simply as a matter of ordinary language, reserving til later the question of its learned definitions (rationes). There are three options: happiness, well-being, and fulfillment. To see which option is best, one needs to consider the following facts.

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Grace And Sin At The Dawn Of Moral Experience

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Grace and Sin at the Dawn of Moral Experience

William H. Marshner

2006

In a notorious article of the Prima Secundae, Aquinas claimed that the first moral decision of an unbaptized child could not result in a venial sin. If the decision was bad, the sin could only be mortal. On the other hand, if the decision was good, the same unbaptized child was freed from original sin. The common doctor’s argument for these claims wove together threads of psychology, moral theology, and eschatology, to fashion a controversial doctrine — elegant, but hard to defend, and in conflict with his own work on faith and justification. This paper will unravel the threads and propose a revised doctrine, less elegant but more plausible, and free of conflict.[1]
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Natural Desire And Natural End: A Critical Comparison Of Cajetan, Soto And Bañez

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March, 1999

Table of Contents

Preface
vii

Chapter 1. The Source of a Divergence
1

Chapter 2. Cajetan’s First Account of the Desire to See God
23
  A. Aquinas’s Text (1 ST q. 12, a. 1)
23
  B. Cajetan’s Commentary
32
  C. Analysis of Cajetan’s Text
46
   — 1. What was the core of Cajetan’s solution?
47
   — 2. What of theological interest followed from this core?
51
   — 3. Why two “ways of considering” intellectual creatures?
62
   — 4. Which consideration was St. Thomas using?
69
   — 5. Given the above, what was Cajetan’s solution to the second dubium?
71
   — 6. Given the above, what was Cajetan’s solution to the first dubium?
72
 D. Concluding evaluation
74

Chapter 3. Beatitudo and Cajetan’s Second Account of the Desire
77
  A. A short primer on beatitudo
77
   — 1. The sense of `beatitudo’
77
   — 2. The ratio beatitudinis on the general level
80
   — 3. Transition: the job of further rationes
82
   — 4. The rationes beatitudinis on the special level
84
   — 5. This life and the next
86
   — 6. Concrete ideal vs. what one settles for
87
  B. 2/1 ST q. 3, a. 6; Aquinas’s text
90
  C. Cajetan’s commentary on article 6
93
  D. 2/1 ST q. 3, a. 7; Aquinas’s text
105
  E. Cajetan’s commentary on article 7
106
  F. 2/1 ST q. 3, a. 8; Aquinas’s text
109
  G. Cajetan’s commentary on article 8
112
  H. Concluding evaluation
121

Chapter 4. Cajetan on Man’s Potency to Supernatural Gifts
123
  A. Nature, art, and the supernatural
125
  B. Connatural vs. supernatural in 1 ST q. 12, a. 5 and in the commentary thereon
138
  C. The hidden end in Aquinas’s texts
153
  D. Cajetan’s explanation of the hiddenness in his commentary on 1 ST q. 1, a. 1
157
  E. Quaestio 1 of De potentia neutra
165
  F. Quaestio 2 of De potentia neutra
175
  G. Concluding evaluation
194

Chapter 5. Dominico Soto: in the Cause of an Augustinian End
197
  A. NG I, c. 3. On man conceived purely in his natural features
199
  B. NG I, c. 4. What duties a man with only his natural features could perform
213
  C. Soto attacks Cajetan on `natural end’
220
  D. Concluding remarks
244

Chapter 6. Dominic Bañez: Triumph of a Scholastic Nature
249
  A. First disputation — Is it true that a created intellect can see God clearly?
252
   — 1. The second objection and Bañez’s response
254
   — 2. The sixth objection and Bañez’s response
269
  B. Second disputation — what to make of the desiderium naturae
273
   — 1. Bañez’s first conclusion
278
   — 2. Bañez’s second conclusion
281

After word
305

Bibliography
311

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A Critique Of Marian Counterfactual Formulae: A Report Of Results

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A CRITIQUE OF MARIAN COUNTERFACTUAL FORMULAE: A REPORT OF RESULTS

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

1979
Christendom College

This paper is devoted to refuting the so-called debitum hypotheticum or conditionatum. In general, a debitum is expressed by the claim that Mary, thanks to her connexion with Adam, was under a necessity to contract original sin; the debitum conditionatum is expressed by the claim that, thanks to the same necessity, she would have contracted original sin, if one or another condition had been fulfilled (e.g., if God had not preserved her).[1]
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A Logician’s Reflections On The Debitum Contrahendi Peccatum

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A LOGICIAN’S REFLECTIONS ON THE DEBITUM CONTRAHENDI PECCATUM[1]

By WILLIAM H. MARSHNER

Christendom College
1978
Reprinted from MARIAN STUDIES (1978)

The long-standing theological debate over whether Our Blessed Mother can be said to have had a debitum peccati begins and ends, it seems, with both sides admitting the truth of the following contrary-to-fact condition:

(A) If she had not been preserved, Mary would have contracted original sin.[2]

The necessity of affirming this or similar counterfactuals is usually said to lie in the Church’s doctrine that Our Lady’s redemption was a “preservative” redemption. It is asked, what can “preservative” mean, if an assertion like (A) is not true?
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