Grace, Actual and Habitual: A Dogmatic TreatisePohle, Joseph
Religion
Grace, Actual and Habitual: A Dogmatic Treatise
Pohle, Joseph
Grace (Theology)
Harnack claims that St. Augustine first stemmed the current dogmatic
tradition and reshaped it by going back to St. Paul. Bellarmine(945)
refuted this audacious assertion long before it was rehashed by the German
rationalist. The Council of Trent was so thoroughly imbued with the
teaching of Augustine that its decrees and canons on justification read as
though they were lifted bodily from his writings. The great “Doctor of
Grace” flatly contradicts the Protestant theory of imputation in such
utterances as these: “He [St. Paul] does not say, ‘the righteousness of
man,’ ... but ‘the righteousness of God,’—meaning not that whereby He is
Himself righteous, but that with which He endows man when He justifies the
ungodly.... The righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ, that is,
by the faith wherewith one believes in Christ. For _here_ is not meant the
faith with which Christ Himself believes, just as _there_ was not meant
the righteousness whereby God is Himself righteous. Both no doubt are
ours; but yet they are called [in one case] God’s, and [in the other]
Christ’s, because it is by their bounty that these gifts are bestowed upon
man.”(946) Again: “When righteousness is given to us, it is not called our
own righteousness, but God’s, because it becomes ours only so that we have
it from God.”(947) Again: “The grace of God is called the righteousness of
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, not that by which the Lord is just, but
that by which He justifies those whom from unrighteous He makes
righteous.”(948) Again: “The love of God is said to be shed abroad in our
hearts, not because He loves us, but because He makes us lovers of
Himself; just as the righteousness of God is used in the sense of our
being made righteous by His gift.”(949) According to St. Augustine,
therefore, justification culminates in a true sanctification of the soul.
“When he [St. Paul] says: ‘We are transformed into the same image,’ he
assuredly means to speak of the image of God; and by calling it ‘the
same,’ he means that very image which we see in the glass,... and that we
pass from a form that is obscure to a form that is bright,... and this
[human] nature, being the most excellent among things created, is changed
from a form that is defaced into a form that is beautiful, when it is
justified by its Creator from ungodliness.”(950)
The Augustinian passages which we have quoted (and they are not by any
means all that could be quoted) enumerate the distinguishing marks of
sanctifying grace in so far as it is the formal cause of
justification.(951)
c) The argument from Revelation can be reinforced by certain philosophical
considerations which show the absurdity of the imputation theory from the
standpoint of common sense.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account