Handbook of Catholic Dogmatics 6

Building on Book Five’s considerations of the person and redemptive deed of Christ, Book Six of Matthias Joseph Scheeben’s Handbook of Catholic Dogmatics offers his account of the subjective realization of salvation through Christ’s bestowal of grace. This stands as Scheeben’s fullest treatment of the much-contested notion of actual grace and the issues related to the sixteenth-century de auxiliis controversy concerning predestination and how God moves the human will. Progressing in three parts, Book Six commences with an analysis of the concept of actual grace, establishing how God can move the will without compelling it and providing a richly developed context for understanding God’s motive influence. The second part examines three principal heresies concerning grace—namely, Pelagianism, Semi-Pelagianism, and the Reformation doctrines—using these as a basis for evaluating the Catholic dogmas about grace that were articulated against them. Finally, in the third part Scheeben explores the necessity of grace in light of man’s fallen condition and his supernatural end.

MATTHIAS JOSEPH SCHEEBEN (1835–1888) was a German priest and scholar whose theology points to the inner coherence of the Christian faith and its supernatural mysteries. Notable in his own time, Scheeben later received praise from Pope Pius XI, who in 1935 encouraged study of the late theologian’s works, reflecting: “The entire theology of Scheeben bears the stamp of a pious ascetical theology.” Hans Urs von Balthasar credited Scheeben as “the greatest German theologian to date.” Scheeben’s works include Nature and Grace, The Mysteries of Christianity, and the unfinished Handbook of Catholic Dogmatics.

Hardcover

Pages: 536