Divine Causality and Human Free Choice

In Divine Causality and Human Free Choice, R.J. Matava explains the idea of physical premotion defended by Domingo Báñez, whose position in the Controversy de Auxiliis has been typically ignored in contemporary discussions of providence and freewill. Through a close engagement with untranslated primary texts, Matava shows Báñez’s relevance to recent debates about middle knowledge. Finding the mutual critiques of Báñez and Molina convincing, Matava argues that common presuppositions led both parties into an insoluble dilemma. However, Matava also challenges the informal consensus that Lonergan definitively resolved the controversy. Developing a position independently advanced by several recent scholars, Matava explains how the doctrine of creation entails a position that is more satisfactory both philosophically and as a reading of Aquinas.

R.J. Matava, Ph. D. (2010), St. Andrews, is Assistant Professor of Theology at Christendom College. He was a research fellow at the Center for Medieval Philosophy, Georgetown University and the Liddon Fellow in Theology at Keble College, University of Oxford.

"Matava effectively shows how introducing the creative causality of God into the discussion of God’s action and human freedom can at once preserve divine transcendence, show that God is unlike creatures, and ground the doctrine of primary and secondary causality. He clearly reveals the fundamental mistakes of Bañez and Molina in the Controversy de Auxiliis. Matava also suggests how the issues surrounding the Controversy may have significant implications for fostering ecumenism, deepening Christian spirituality, addressing modern atheism, and understanding more general contemporary conundrums about causality. His work will be of great value not only for those concerned with the question of God and human freedom but for all who are interested in the nature of divine action."

Michael J. Dodds OP, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology inAmerican Catholic Philosophical Quarterly Vol. 92 (2018), No. 4 pp. 714–717. (doi: 10.5840/acpq2018924163)

[The reader] “is masterfully guided through the “battlefield” of one of theology’s most exciting controversies. After reading this book, one better understands why the controversies on grace were the last time Catholic theology held the center stage in a worldwide intellectual debate.”
Ulrich L. Lehner, Marquette University. In: Theological Studies, Vol. 78, No. 3 (2017), p. 789.