Again, a Frame move, this time from Aquinas: If “the divine will is perfectly efficacious, it follows not only that things are done, which God wills to be done, but also that they are done in the way that He wills. Now God wills some things to be done necessarily, some contingently, to the right ordering of things, for the building up of the universe.”
Levering comments: “God wills that Jane be a human being with free will (God wills her free will), and God wills that Jane freely cause certain effects. It needs to be seen that were God not to will the act of Jane’s free will, she would have no free will . Were God not to will her free act (the act that she freely wills), she would have no free act.”
Freedom not “in spite of” but “because of” sovereignty.
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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