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Middle Knowledge and “The Good Place”
NBC’s The Good Place which aired for four seasons from 2016-2020 was one of the few televisions show on air in recent years that focused explicitly on moral philosophy. As such, the show offers a number of points on which Christians can engage with the philosophy and theology of the show to see its insights…
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Could Molinism Become a Catholic Dogma?
Molinism, that is the doctrine of middle knowledge (Lat. scientia media) has been a widely debated topic in Catholic and even Protestant theology for the past four and a half centuries. Despite Molina’s ideas being widely debated in the 16th and early 17th centuries, the Church under Pope Paul V chose not to pick a…
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Errorstotle? Examining Aristotle’s View of Future Contingents
Aristotle is widely regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of all time. He is perhaps most highly regarded by Catholics because of the influence his ideas came to have in Medieval Christendom. Figures from Thomas Aquinas to William of Ockham referred to him as “the Philosopher”. Nevertheless, as widely regarded as Aristotle was, he…
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God’s Knowledge of Future Contingents: A Molinist Account
Recently, Alsdair MacIntyre, one of the most prominent Catholic philosophers of the past century, delivered his annual lecture at the Notre Dame fall conference. The lecture is available here. During the lecture, MacIntyre claimed that certain spontaneous acts (“singularities”) of free creatures could not be foreknown even by God. MacIntyre claimed that this was not…
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Some Great Resources on Molinism
Below are links to some great articles, books, and videos on Molinism by Molinist and non Molinist scholars alike. Articles Banez’s Big Problem: The Ground of FreedomJames Dominic Rooney OP Rooney argues that while Molinism has to deal with the grounding objection, the main Catholic alternative to Molinism, Banezianism, has itself a problem in regards…
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Molinism Defended: A refutation of Steven Colborne
Steven Colborne has published an article over at his blog perfectchaos.org offering three very brief critiques of Molinism. In this brief rebuttal I will respond to all three. The Critiques 1. Freedom is Impossible Colborne writes: God, by His very nature, is omnipresent, which means that there are no boundaries to God’s being. If God…
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The real contingency of counterfactuals of creaturely freedom: a response to Ron Digiacomo
Ron Digiacomo published an article over at philosophical-theology.com critiquing Molinism for failing to preserve the real contingency of the counterfactuals of creaturely freedom. Digiacomo argues that because Molinism holds that God cannot actualize certain worlds based on the counterfactuals of creaturely freedom, that these words are not as contingent as Molinists want to think. Molinism…
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Luis Molina’s Theory of Middle Knowledge as a Catholic Response to the Reformation
This paper was presented at the undergraduate Medieval and Early Modernists of North Texas and Oklahoma 2019 Conference in February of 2019 at the University of Dallas The Protestant Reformation was undoubtedly the most important theological event of the 16th century and perhaps the most important historical event of that time outright. Since the Reformation,…
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Was Luis Molina Condemned by a Pope? A Refutation of Jacob Imam
Jacob Imam badly misquotes Innocent X’s decree against Jansenists. What it really says is quite contrary to what Imam says in the debate.