Free Will, Moral Responsibility, and Reformed Theology - Analytic ...

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Paul L. Manata © 2011
not rule it out.” 72 Indeed, on determinism, we are a vital part of the coming about
of the determined end. So nothing about determinism rules out secondary
causation.
Horton tells us that the primary and secondary causality is that of Aquinas, and
that “the Reformers and their theological successors were satisfied in using this
category and were even, for the most part, satisfied with the way it had been
handled by Aquinas.” 73 But the story given by Beck, Vos, et al. is that Duns Scotus
was the main inspiration for Reformed views on free will and contingency.
However, it is well known that Scotus was largely reacting to Aquinas and they
had different views on the will. Nevertheless, even if we grant Aquinas the
position of font of Reformed thought, we should point out that, “more
important, it is not at all clear that Aquinas affirms the incompatibility of freedom
and causal determinism.” In fact, “everything Aquinas says in reaching these
conclusions [on the nature of free will] is perfectly compatible with
determinism.” 74 So, if the contingency of secondary causes the Reformers held to
is Thomistic in nature, it is not clear that implies a contingency inconsistent with
determinism. Moreover, it is very important to point out an often-­‐muffled fact
about secondary causality: God decrees our secondary causal actions too! If
secondary causes for the Reformed tradition are, as Horton says, “instrumental
causes” God uses in his “direction of all events to their appointed ends . . . for
good because all things are decreed by his wise counsels,” 75 it is very hard to
72 Robert Kane, Contemporary Introduction to Free Will (Oxford University Press,
2005), p. 20.
73 Michael Horton, The Christian Faith (Zondervan, 2011), p. 356.
74 Thomas Williams, “Human Nature and Free Will” forthcoming in the Oxford
Handbook of Aquinas (Oxford University Press), available online, <
http://shell.cas.usf.edu/~thomasw/Human%20freedom%20and%20agency%20(A
quinas).pdf>, last accessed 7/17/11.
75 Michael Horton, The Christian Faith (Zondervan, 2011), pgs. 356–357.