205. God's Causality of Sin and Divine Punishment

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Whether God is a Cause of Sin #

• The fundamental question: Can God be a cause of sin given His nature as absolute goodness?
• Augustine’s principle: sin is not a “thing” but a privation—the man who sins “becomes nothing”
• The act of sin contains two elements: the act itself (which has being) and the defect (which lacks being)
• God must cause whatever has being; the defect comes from created causes (free will)

The Act of Sin vs. Sin Itself #

• God causes the act: Every being in act is reduced to God as the first cause; every action requires something existing in act
• God does not cause sin: Sin consists of an act with a defect; God is not the cause of the defect
• The defect arises when the will falls short of the order directed toward God
• This defect is not reduced to God as a cause but to free judgment (libero arbitrio)

Blindness and Hardness of Heart #

• These are divine punishments consisting of two elements:
  1. The motion of the human soul adhering to evil and turning from divine light (guilt, caused by human will)
  2. The subtraction of grace by which the mind is not illuminated and the heart is not softened (punishment, permitted by God)
• Distinction: Blindness (excaecatio) pertains to defect in understanding/sight; hardness of heart (obduratio) pertains to defect in will/affection
• God is the universal cause of enlightenment, as the sun is the universal cause of bodily light
• When God withholds grace, He does not positively cause blindness but permits the consequence of the obstacle placed by human will

Key Arguments #

Against God Being a Cause of Sin #

Argument 1: The Nature of Sin

• Every sin is a recession from the order directed toward God as the ultimate end
• God inclines all things toward Himself as their final end
• Therefore, it is impossible for God to be a cause of departing from His order

Argument 2: The Agent and Intention

• No one acts except by intending the good (as Dionysius says)
• Those intending evil do not truly will evil as such
• God does not cause sin because He is not a cause of such departures from order

Argument 3: The Species of Act

• Some acts are evil according to their species (sins)
• Whatever is a cause of something is a cause of what belongs to it according to its species
• If God caused the act of sin, He would be the cause of sin itself
• This is impossible; therefore God is not the cause of the act of sin

In Favor: God’s Causality of All Motion #

Argument from Divine Omnipotence

• The act of sin is a motion of free will
• The will of God is the cause of all motions (Augustine, Trinity III; Aristotle)
• Therefore, the will of God must be the cause of the act of sin

Resolution: The Distinction of Act and Defect #

The Core Principle

• Every being in whatever way it exists is necessarily derived from the first being (God), as Dionysius teaches
• Every action is caused by something existing in act; nothing acts except according as it is in act
• All being in act is reduced to God (pure act) as the ultimate cause
• Therefore, God is the cause of every action insofar as it is an action

The Critical Distinction

• Sin names an action with a certain defect
• The defect comes from a created cause (free judgment) insofar as it falls short from the order of the first agent
• This defect is not reduced to God as a cause but to free judgment
• Conclusion: God is the cause of the act of sin, but not of sin itself (not of the defect constituting the sin)

God as Cause of Blindness and Hardness #

The Analogy of the Sun

• The sun is the universal cause of bodily enlightenment
• The sun acts by necessity of nature; God acts voluntarily through His wisdom
• Though the sun enlightens all bodies from itself, if it finds an impediment (closed shutters), it leaves that body dark
• The sun is not the cause of such darkness; the cause is whoever closed the shutters
• Similarly: God is not the cause of blindness positively; the cause is the one who places an obstacle to grace
• But God, by His judgment, does not place the light of grace where He finds an obstacle
• Thus God is both a cause (through His judgment regarding withholding grace) and not the direct cause of the blindness

Important Definitions #

• Sin (peccatum): An act with a defect; consists of both the physical action (which has being) and the moral privation or defect (which lacks being)
• Privation (privatio): Not mere negation but the absence of a good that ought to be present
• Libero arbitrio (free judgment/free will): The created cause responsible for the defect in sin
• Excaecatio (blindness): A defect in the intellect’s ability to see truth correctly; a condition where the mind is not illuminated to seeing correctly
• Obduratio (hardness of heart/obduracy): A defect in the will’s ability to be softened toward living well; a condition where the heart is not softened to living well
• Subtraction of grace (subtractio gratiae): The withdrawal of the light of grace and fire of charity by God’s judgment, resulting in blindness and hardness

Examples & Illustrations #

The Limping Analogy (Tibia/Shin Bone) #

• A person with a curved tibia (shin bone) limps
• The motion in limping comes from the motive power (which is good)
• The defect in limping comes from the curved tibia (which is deformed)
• The motive power is not responsible for the defect in the limp
• Application: God causes the motion/action of sin, but the defect (that makes it sinful) belongs to the human will falling short of God’s order

The Sun and Closed Shutters #

• A house with closed shutters remains dark
• The sun does not cause the darkness
• The cause of darkness is the one who closed the shutters
• The sun merely fails to illuminate due to the impediment
• Application: God does not positively cause blindness; the obstacle to grace comes from human will

Practical Example: Misunderstanding Dionysius #

• Berquist mentions encountering a student who had garbled Dionysius’s teaching
• He could immediately recognize where the defect lay in the student’s account
• The student did not intend to misrepresent Dionysius but fell short through failure to understand
• Application: The defect in the student’s understanding belongs to the student, not to Dionysius or the correct doctrine

False Definition of Motion #

• Teaching Aristotle’s Physics, Berquist collected an entire page of misquotations and garbled definitions of motion
• A few students got it exactly right
• Many could only repeat what was said without understanding
• Application: The defect lies in the students’ understanding, not in the definition itself

The Pianist and the Defective Key #

• A great pianist plays a piano where one key is defective
• The pianist causes the sound (motion) when hitting the key
• The pianist is not responsible for the defect in the sound
• Application: God causes the act; the will is responsible for the defect

Questions Addressed #

Question 1: Is the Act of Sin from God? #

Resolution: Yes and no. God is the cause of the act insofar as it is an action and has being. However, God is not the cause of the defect that makes the action sinful. The defect comes from the human will insofar as it falls short of the order of God. The act itself is a being; therefore, it must come from God as the first cause of all being.

Question 2: Is God a Cause of Blindness and Hardness of Heart? #

Resolution: God is a cause of blindness and hardness of heart insofar as He withholds the light of grace and the fire of charity. However, this is not a positive causation of evil but a permissive causation through divine judgment. God finds an obstacle in those to whom He does not grant grace, just as the sun finds a closed shutter and does not illuminate the interior. The direct cause of the obstacle is the human will; God’s role is to judge that grace should not be given.