The Divine Will and Human Freedom: A Thomistic Analysis | Dr. Kevin G. Rickert | Homiletic & Pastoral Review
The unity of divine and human wills, as well as human freedom, are vital to Aquinas’ theology.
At the center of Nietzsche’s rejection of Christianity is the idea that Christianity involves an attack upon the human will. In The Antichrist he says the following: "The Christian conception of God…is one of the most corrupt conceptions of the divine ever attained on earth. It may even represent the low-water mark in the descending development of divine types.… God as the declaration of war against life, against nature, against the will to live! … God—the deification of nothingness, the will to nothingness pronounced holy!"
In this passage, and in much of his work, Nietzsche is reacting against a version of Christianity in which the human will, human individuality, human personality and human greatness is crushed. In his vision of Christianity, individual human persons are transformed into herd animals that no longer have any power, because they no longer exercise their individual wills.
This brand of Christian anthropology, which Nietzsche sees as a threat to the human will, has presented itself in a variety of theological doctrines that have arisen in the history of Christianity. Perhaps the most famous is the heresy known as Quietism. According to the Quietists, a Christian advances in holiness by diminishing the individual will, eventually eliminating it and allowing the divine will to take its place. After all, Jesus told his followers to pray, “Thy will be done,” and as he went to the cross, he said to the Father, “Not my will, but yours be done.” Some seventh-century theologians, seeing Jesus as the perfect exemplar of this negation of the human will, asserted that Jesus did not himself employ an individual human will but acted completely with the divine will. This heresy is known as “Monothelitism.”
In Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI sets out to clarify some of the common misconceptions of the day about the loving relationship between God and human beings. He explains that a mature love of God involves a unification of the divine will and the human will. Like many other Christian authors, he states the case in a manner, which if taken out of context, sounds somewhat like the heretical statements of the Quietists. The Pope says, “God’s will is no longer for me an alien will…but it is now my own will.”2 If this passage were taken to mean that the human will is eliminated or shut down and replaced by the divine will, it would seem to be the core doctrine of the Quietists. As we shall see, Pope Benedict XVI’s position, like that of St. Thomas Aquinas, is far from the doctrine of the Quietists.
For Christian theologians who seek a comprehensive vision of the human person, it is important to determine whether or not there can be a coherent anthropology that preserves the integrity of the human will and yet is compatible with Christian doctrine. At the same time, it is important to ask whether or not there can be a rational interpretation of Christianity that does not entail the diminution of the human will that characterizes the Quietists and that so infuriated Nietzsche.
St. Thomas Aquinas is one theologian who put forth a view of the human person in which the individual will is considered a fundamental part of human nature. Unlike Nietzsche’s notion of Christianity, St. Thomas’ conception of Christianity sees the exercise and development of the will as an essential part of human perfection. As St. Thomas sees it, God created us in his image, with intellect and will. As an effect of sin, our wills are weak, but it is not God’s intention that they remain weak. As a part of our path to salvation, we are called to strengthen our wills, and as a part of our ultimate happiness, our wills are to become perfected—to become like God’s will.
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