Why did God not Create us in Heaven? The Idea of Creation in statu viae in Thomas Aquinas and Thomas Talbott
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/BPTh.2022.007Keywords
creation, Genesis, Paradise, Heaven, necessity, determinism, freedom, Thomas Aquinas, TalbottAbstract
In his book entitled The Inescapable Love of God (first published in 1999), Thomas Talbott, an evangelical professor of philosophy and universalist, responds to Michael Murray, who, working under the universalist assumption of universal salvation, asks the following question: Why did God not create us all ab initio in the ultimate state in Heaven? The article will compare Talbott’s answer to the question posited by Murray with the teaching of Aquinas, which explains why Paradise was the right place for people before the original sin. In this way, the similarities and differences in the Aquinas’ and Talbott’s thinking will appear. It will serve to argue that Angelic Doctor’s argumentation is still useful and valid in contemporary debates.
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