Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T04:39:32.356Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

32 - Weakness and grace

from V - Will and desire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2014

Richard Cross
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
Robert Pasnau
Affiliation:
University of Colorado Boulder
Christina van Dyke
Affiliation:
Calvin College, Michigan
Get access

Summary

That human beings sometimes act wrongly – be it through ignorance, weakness, or malice (deliberate wrongdoing) – is a commonplace of human experience; that divine grace can help them avoid such wrongdoing is a central feature of Christian doctrine, and thus accepted by all the Christian philosophers whose work is the principal focus of this chapter. These philosophers also accepted that the possibility of weakness – sometimes, but not always, characterized as weakness of will – results from a decisive sin of the first human beings. This “original sin” introduced the kind of disorder into human psychology that is, according to the medieval philosophers, the major component of moral weakness. Grace begins, among other things, the process of reordering this defective psychology. Two very disparate figures inform the presentation of these various issues in the high Middle Ages: Augustine and Aristotle. From Augustine, the medievals derived accounts of original sin, of grace, and – most importantly of all – the beginnings of a theory of consent somehow distinct from both reason and emotion; from Aristotle, they derived an account of moral weakness that they sometimes struggled to integrate with Augustinian teachings on the will, a view of the virtues that informed their account of grace, and a theory of motion that they used to talk about God’s activity in the soul.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Yrjönsuuri, Mikko (eds.) Emotions and Choice from Boethius to Descartes (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2002)
Hoffmann, Tobias et al. (eds.) Das Problem der Willensschwäche in der mittelalterlichen Philosophie (Leuven: Peeters, 2006)
Saarinen, Risto, Weakness of the Will in Medieval Thought from Augustine to Buridan (Leiden: Brill, 1994)
Kent, Bonnie, Virtues of the Will: The Transformation of Ethics in the Late Thirteenth Century (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1995)
Kent, Bonnie, “Evil in Later Medieval Philosophy,” Journal of the History of Philosophy 45 (2007) 177–205Google Scholar
Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 75 (2007) 70–91
Knuutilla, Simo, Emotions in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004)
Besnier, Bernard et al. (eds.) Les passions antiques et médiévales (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2003)
McGrath, Alister, Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification, 3rd edn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005)
Warwykow, Joseph, God’s Grace and Human Action: “Merit” in the Theology of Thomas Aquinas (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995)
van Roo, William, Grace and Original Justice According to St Thomas (Rome: Gregorian University, 1955)
Colish, Marcia, Peter Lombard (Leiden: Brill, 1994) II: 476–7
Adams, Marilyn McCord, William Ockham (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1987) II: 1279–95

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Weakness and grace
  • Edited by Robert Pasnau, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Edited in association with Christina van Dyke, Calvin College, Michigan
  • Book: The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy
  • Online publication: 05 August 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781107446953.039
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Weakness and grace
  • Edited by Robert Pasnau, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Edited in association with Christina van Dyke, Calvin College, Michigan
  • Book: The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy
  • Online publication: 05 August 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781107446953.039
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Weakness and grace
  • Edited by Robert Pasnau, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Edited in association with Christina van Dyke, Calvin College, Michigan
  • Book: The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy
  • Online publication: 05 August 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781107446953.039
Available formats
×