On Calvinism and Thomism
A Short Note
Frequently, Thomists hear accusations of ‘Calvinism’ or ‘Crypto-Calvinism’ leveled at them. Such accusations are, of course, ridiculous on multiple grounds and display an ignorance both of Calvinism and of Catholic dogma. Yet, everyone knows about this already (or, at least, those who have been paying attention to where the debate is at). There is nothing new in repeating again the interesting tidbit that Predestination is Catholic dogma, nor was there ever anything new in this. The basic facts are out there and not hard to sift through with a discerning eye.
Unfortunately, there is a polemical cycle that many of the ‘E-Theology’ circles are stuck in, where repeating these basic facts and common narratives becomes the cottage industry. There is not much new or fresh in here, nor does it often lead to a more profound understanding of the truth. Rather, theology (especially scholastic theology) becomes a mindless endeavor of collecting sources to show how a pet doctrine is misunderstood by other people. The culture this builds is quite destructive. Readers are not reading out of genuine interest, but are compelled to out of an addiction to being confirmed in a midwit’s understanding of ‘esoteric’ doctrine. Authors believe that their collection of resources constitutes a genuine theological achievement; in reality, such work requires little insight or synthetic power—the marks of true theology.
Hence, I hope to avoid these tendencies by asking a question that is a bit more interesting: if most accusations of ‘Calvinism’ are absurd, what are some important differences with ‘Thomism,’ if any? This question is a bit more interesting, but could only make sense if one has no idea what either of those two words mean. The questioner asks such a question as if Thomism and Calvinism could be limited to one doctrine of theology. In reality, they are both systems of theology with innumerable differences in each tract of theology.
Yet, when such a question is asked, it would be disingenuous for me to pretend as if I did not understand what the questioner was attempting to ask. When this question is asked, the particular question is whether the Thomist and the Calvinist differ in their articulation of how God’s predestinating decree relates to acts of free will.
Here, I don’t want to give my own answer for how I would personally articulate whether there is a difference; rather, I will be giving what the Thomists themselves commonly say about the difference between the two, drawing from Billuart and Gonet.
