HIST-308 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Thomas Bradwardine, Theodicy, Septuagint
11 Mar 2020
School
Department
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Thomas Bradwardine.
• Original sin.
Augustine's sense of original sin.
Humankind in Eden.
Humankind now.
Humankind in 'heaven'.
• Sin and predestination.
Sinning is not an option but an inevitability.
Our condition is so severe that only grace, only divine agency, only some kind of predestination
can grant us mercy in the face of sin.
• Predestination and justice.
The idea of predestination often leads to questions like: Is it just for God to save some people
and not others?
Such questions seek to use a human sense of "justice" as a standard against which to measure
the divine.
• Theodicy.
This is the question of theodicy, theologically speaking.
The question of how to justify God for God's divine action.
Augustine and Paul answer it similarly: who are you, o humankind to question God? The potter
has power over clay!
• Justification.
Based on Augustine's reading of Paul, then, there is little question of humankind having to
justify God's actions.
Document Summary
Sinning is not an option but an inevitability. Our condition is so severe that only grace, only divine agency, only some kind of predestination can grant us mercy in the face of sin: predestination and justice. Such questions seek to use a human sense of "justice" as a standard against which to measure the divine: theodicy. This is the question of theodicy, theologically speaking. The question of how to justify god for god"s divine action. Based on augustine"s reading of paul, then, there is little question of humankind having to justify god"s actions. Instead, the script is flipped: it is god that justifies humankind"s actions, which are themselves never just: doctrine of justification. By this logic, then humans cannot make themselves just. Instead, they must be made just by god who alone determines the meaning of justice: words for justice. The way we translate these terms can be loaded.
