Predestination in Renaissance Philosophy

This entry deals with the concept of predestination, as it was developed in Christian debates in the time of the Renaissance. First, a brief philological introduction will be given, to show the origin of this debate. Second, Augustine’s view of predestination will be examined. Thereafter, the focus will be devoted to the centuries XIV–XVII, first analyzing John Wycliffe and Jan Hus, then Luther and Calvin, Jacob Arminius, the inner-Catholic debate of the so-called “de auxiliis controversy,” and finally turning to competing conceptions of God’s grace within three schools of Roman Catholic thought: the anti-Pelagian, Augustinian-minded school in the Spanish Netherlands – which later lead to Jansenism – the Thomist-Bañezian School in Spain, and the Jesuit Molinist school. In the course of the treatise, the difference between supralapsarianism and infralapsarianism will be clarified. Moreover, it will be necessary to consider several notions that are tightly linked with predestination, such as “grace,” “foreknowledge,” “merit,” “free will,” “election,” and “vocation.”