De Deo uno
Heinrich Lennerz (1880–1961)
First published 1955
Lennerz's De Deo uno (Romae, 1955, editio quinta): his Gregorian course on the one God. The rights of the original Latin are held by the Deutsche Region der Jesuiten, K.d.ö.R., München.
Introduction
Pars I: On the knowability of God
Sectio I: On natural knowledge of God
The teaching of the Church on natural knowledge of God
Thesis I: God, the beginning and end of all things, can be known with certainty from created things by the natural light of human reason
Thesis II: The existence of God can be demonstrated
Thesis III: Natural knowledge of God in this life is only mediate
Thesis IV: By this natural knowledge we know God not through his proper form but through the form of creatures, which are his effects; yet we know not merely extrinsic denominations but truly, although imperfectly, the quiddity of God
Sectio II: On supernatural knowledge of God
Thesis I: The intuitive vision of God is possible for human beings
Thesis II: The intuitive vision of God is absolutely supernatural
Sectio III: On the universality of knowledge of God
Thesis I: Knowledge of God is so universal that there are no adult negative atheists
Pars II: On the divine perfections
Pars III: On the knowledge of God
Thesis I: God knows himself and all things that exist and can exist besides himself, including those that will occur through the free action of creatures and those that would occur if certain conditions were fulfilled
On the division of divine knowledge
On the knowledge of God which is the cause of things
Further explanations concerning the knowledge of God
From the history of theologians' opinions on divine knowledge of future contingents
Thesis II: God does not know absolutely future free acts in a cause proximately ready to act, nor in a decree of physical predetermination, but, given his knowledge of conditionally future free acts, in a decree to bring about the conditions
Thesis III: God does not know conditionally future free acts in a moment prior to their futurition
Pars IV: On providence and predestination
Sectio I: On divine providence
Thesis I: God governs by his providence all things that he has created
Sectio II: On predestination and reprobation
Historical survey
Thesis I: In the present order of salvation restored by Christ, God sincerely wills the salvation of all adults by an antecedent will: there is therefore no positive antecedent reprobation
On the term of the antecedent will
Thesis II: The doctrine that maintains negative antecedent reprobation must not be admitted
Thesis III: Predestination taken as a whole is gratuitous; but the predestination of adults to glory taken precisely as such is after foreseen merits
On the effects of predestination and reprobation
On the certainty of predestination and reprobation
On the number of the predestined
517. God has not revealed how many people will in fact attain eternal blessedness; therefore we do not know the number of the predestined. Many have asserted that they are relatively few in comparison with the whole human race; they relied on Christ’s words: “For many are called, but few are chosen”1, with which words the parable of those invited to the wedding feast concludes. Since, however, the parable seems to deal directly with the calling of the Jews to the faith, these words too seem to be understood in the same sense; and thus they would say nothing about the number of those to be saved. If someone wished to apply the parable to the attainment of the blessed life, it should be noted that only one of those many was found without a wedding garment and cast into the outer darkness. Hence it seems better to draw no definite conclusion from this saying of the Lord about the number of the predestined.
What Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount could more readily be explained in this sense: “Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. How narrow the gate and constricted the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it!”2. But in the Apocalypse it is said: “And I heard the number of those sealed: one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed, from every tribe of the children of Israel ... After this I saw a great multitude, which no one could number, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue”3. And from these words one can easily conclude that they are not few.
518. S. THOMAS: “As for the number of all predestined human beings, some say that as many human beings will be saved as angels fell; others, that as many will be saved as angels remained; and others, that4 as many human beings will be saved as angels fell, and in addition as many as the angels who were created. But it is better said that the number of the elect to be placed in heavenly blessedness is known to God alone”5.
The best answer to the question “Are there few who are saved?” is the one Christ the Lord gave to someone who asked him thus: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate”6.