Grace and Sin

Final Essays

Joe Padykula

Sister Sunderman

TH 100 B

December 14, 2000

Grace

In order to completely understand the theology of grace

you have to take a look at Augustine, Aquinas, Luther,

Rahner, Segundo, and Boff, and how they understood what

grace was. Their theories on grace have some valid points

and yet they also have some invalid points.

Augustine took a personal approach to grace and he

believed in the massa damnata, which basically means that on

the whole people are damned. He said before the original

sin, you had a choice to be good or evil. Also, Augustine

said that there is a double predestination, which means only

some people are chosen before they are born if they are

going to go to heaven. I don’t agree with this because it

is basically saying that there is no salvation for all

people.

Aquinas thought that grace was added to nature and it

elevates nature. He wrote the Summa, which demonstrates the

beatific vision. The beatific vision is when the mind is

unified to God. Aquinas’ theology is dualistic which

displays natural and supernatural as separate entities. I

don’t believe in his beatific vision because I believe that

God allows us to make our own choices out of free will so

our mind cannot be unified with Him. Unless I am wrong,

this is saying God knows what is going to happen before it

happens. If this is the case why do we have suffering;

because God gave us free will.

Luther viewed grace through his own view of himself as

a sinner. He was so obsessed that he confessed his sins

seven times a day. He said that grace is a favor of God and

it heals a person’s sinfulness. He said that Jesus’ word

was a vehicle of grace and that grace cannot be merited. I

think his views on grace are not very good only because he

views God as an active member and humans as a passive one.

In order to be truly graced I believe that both parties need

to be active and involved.

Rahner believes that grace is intrinsic to nature and

he also believes in Anonymous Christianity. This theory