Fr. Most on Predestination

The discussion over at Pontifications continues: see "Reprobating Predestination"

Fr. Most's Grace, Predestination and the Salvific Will of God: New Answers to Old Questions is still in print, I believe--it's published by Christendom Press. It's also available online here.

(Distribution is now handled through ISI. No more work study positions for Christendom Students at the Press?)

A quick glance at the ISI Books catalog confirms that it is still in print. However his other books are not. Maybe I should get another copy.

I don't have any formal theological training, but my opinion, for what it is worth--I find Fr. Most's book to be very clear (and concise) and an example of good theological method. Perhaps a book dealing with fundamental/dogmatic/positive theology can be more "literary," but there is something to be said for a certain style being appropriate to speculative or systematic theology.

From his preface to the Latin original edition:

But, in view of the great difficulty of the matter, it seemed good, before publication, to seek the critical judgment of many theologians. I therefore sent nearly 500 privately lithographed copies to many theologians whom I happened to know, both in Europe and in the United States, and in other lands as well. About a hundred replied. Many of them liked my position substantially; many did not. These excellent scholars who replied were a great help—some because they by their approval gave needed encouragement, others because they gave positive suggestions for improvement, still others because they raised objections.

By the goodness of Divine Providence, those who replied belonged to many and diverse schools of theology. That is, replies came from Thomists, Molinists, Scotists, Syncretists, and others. Among them were dogmatic theologians, exegetes, and patrologists. Perhaps the reader may wonder which schools liked, and which disliked my position. Actually, the division did not follow school lines. Instead, there were both Thomists and Molinists among those who liked it; and, conversely, both Thomists and Molinists among those who did not like it. However, one principle of division appeared in many, though not all cases: those who did not like it seemed to want to solve the entire problem by metaphysics; those who liked it seemed to want to start with the sources of revelation and the Magisterium, and only after that to add metaphysical considerations.

Speculative theology is not natural theology or metaphysics dressed up with citations from Scripture or the Fathers or the Magisterium--it takes as its starting point divinely revealed data, and this supernatural origin must be respected. (Even if certain polemicists wish to characterize Latin theology as nothing more than philosophy in disguise.)

The MOST Theological Collection at CatholicCulture.org

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