Grace and Freedom
This systematic theological study emerged from Bernard Lonergan's doctoral dissertation at the Gregorian University in Rome, completed in 1940 but not published in English until 1971. Lonergan undertook this intensive analysis of Aquinas during a period when Catholic theology was grappling with questions about human freedom and divine action that would later surface prominently in debates surrounding Vatican II. The work represents Lonergan's early attempt to apply rigorous historical and philosophical methods to classical theological problems.
Lonergan traces the development of Aquinas's understanding of operative grace through careful analysis of the Summa Theologica and other key texts. He demonstrates how Aquinas distinguished between operative grace, by which God moves the human will without its cooperation, and cooperative grace, by which God works together with the human will that has already been moved by operative grace. Lonergan argues that Aquinas resolved apparent contradictions between divine sovereignty and human freedom by showing how God's action operates on different levels of causality than human action. The study reveals how Aquinas's mature position represents a sophisticated synthesis that preserves both the primacy of divine grace and the reality of human responsibility, avoiding both Pelagian and predestinarian extremes.
This work established Lonergan as a major interpreter of Thomistic theology and influenced subsequent Catholic discussions of grace and freedom. It demonstrates the methodological rigor that would characterize Lonergan's later systematic works while remaining focused on historical-theological analysis rather than his later transcendental method. The study continues to serve as an authoritative interpretation of Aquinas on grace for systematic theologians and historians of medieval thought.
Who should read this: Advanced students of systematic theology and scholars of medieval thought who seek rigorous analysis of Thomistic theology. This is not introductory reading but rather demands substantial background in both Thomistic terminology and classical theological debates about grace and free will.