Essay About Beatific Vision And Essay Grace

Grace and Sin
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Final Essays
Joe Padykula
Sister Sunderman
TH 100 B
December 14, 2000
Grace
In order to completely understand the theology of grace
you have to take a look at Augustine, Aquinas, Luther,
Rahner, Segundo, and Boff, and how they understood what
grace was. Their theories on grace have some valid points
and yet they also have some invalid points.
Augustine took a personal approach to grace and he
believed in the massa damnata, which basically means that on
the whole people are damned. He said before the original
sin, you had a choice to be good or evil. Also, Augustine
said that there is a double predestination, which means only
some people are chosen before they are born if they are
going to go to heaven. I don’t agree with this because it
is basically saying that there is no salvation for all
people.
Aquinas thought that grace was added to nature and it
elevates nature. He wrote the Summa, which demonstrates the
beatific vision. The beatific vision is when the mind is
unified to God. Aquinas’ theology is dualistic which
displays natural and supernatural as separate entities. I
don’t believe in his beatific vision because I believe that
God allows us to make our own choices out of free will so
our mind cannot be unified with Him. Unless I am wrong,
this is saying God knows what is going to happen before it
happens. If this is the case why do we have suffering;
because God gave us free will.
Luther viewed grace through his own view of himself as
a sinner. He was so obsessed that he confessed his sins
seven times a day. He said that grace is a favor of God and
it heals a person’s sinfulness. He said that Jesus’ word
was a vehicle of grace and that grace cannot be merited. I
think his views on grace are not very good only because he
views God as an active member and humans as a passive one.
In order to be truly graced I believe that both parties need
to be active and involved.
Rahner believes that grace is intrinsic to nature and
he also believes in Anonymous Christianity. This theory