Free Will and God's Universal Causality: The Dual Sources Account

by W. Matthews Grant, Stewart Goetz (Series Editor)

The traditional doctrine of God's universal causality holds that God directly causes all entities distinct from himself, including all creaturely actions. But can our actions be free in the strong, libertarian sense if they are directly caused by God? W. Matthews Grant argues that free creaturely acts have dual sources , God and the free creaturely agent, and are ultimately up to both in a way that leaves all the standard conditions for libertarian freedom satisfied. Offering a comprehensive alternative to existing approaches for combining theism and libertarian freedom, he proposes new solutions for reconciling libertarian freedom with robust accounts of God's providence, grace, and predestination. He also addresses the problem of moral evil without the commonly employed Free Will Defense. Written for analytic philosophers and theologians, Grant's approach can be characterized as “neo-scholastic” as well as “analytic,” since many of the positions defended are inspired by, consonant with, and develop resources drawn from the scholastic tradition, especially Aquinas.

Genres: Philosophy, Theology

258 pages, Paperback

Published September 17, 2020

Reviews

[Caleb Doxsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent overview of a Thomistic account of libertarian freedom and divine universal causation. The first chapter is very readable and gives a good overview of the topic. The subsequent chapters are much more in depth and philosophically rigorous. This is not an easy book.

That said, as a layman, despite not entirely following some of the arguments, and though I've read many other books on this topic, I came away feeling like I learned a lot. If like me you intuitively shy away from conceptions of free will based on compatibilism, yet are generally Reformed on these matters, this Thomistic perspective was refreshing. It's a bit Catholic in places, but there's a surprising amount of overlap on the topic of predestination.

I highly recommend this book if you're interested in the integration of the philosophy of human freedom with theology.

[Calin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I've read on this topic. Still doesn't address every question or possible objection, but the ones it does address are done with such thoroughness and rigor that excellent conceptual tools are crafted for pursuing further lines of inquiry.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating account!