Tag Archives: libertarian freedom

The Holy Freedom of Sir Gibbie and the Gnomic Will

Posted on 31 March 2020 by Fr Aidan Kimel

In his book That All Shall Be Saved, David Hart adduces the important distinction between the natural will and the gnomic will: In the terms of the great Maximus the Confessor (c. 580-662), the “natural will” within us, which is … Continue reading →

Posted in Inklings & Company | Tagged , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Apprehending Apokatastasis: The Necessary Choosing of the Good

Posted on 13 March 2020 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Every human being is divinely ordered to God under the aspects of the transcendentals of being—the Truth, the Good, and the Beautiful. We hunger and thirst for union with him, for only in him can we enjoy supreme and overflowing … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, David B. Hart, Eschatology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 51 Comments

‘That All Shall Be Saved’: An Introductory Review

Posted on 30 August 2019 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Four years ago David Bentley Hart announced on Eclectic Orthodoxy that he subscribes to the doctrine of apokatastasis and hoped to write a book on the subject. I do not know if this was the first time he had ever … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, David B. Hart | Tagged , , , , , , , | 71 Comments

The Doxastic Problem: If you really, really believe in hell, you may already be in it

Posted on 6 August 2019 by Fr Aidan Kimel

I have saved the best for last. Okay, that’s a tad inaccurate. I imagine that most readers of Sinners in the Presence of a Loving God will find the chapters devoted to the divine pres­ence model of hell to be the … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Eschatology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 29 Comments

Universal Salvation: What are the odds?

Posted on 4 March 2019 by Fr Aidan Kimel

There are different kinds and degrees of hope. There is the hope that tomorrow will be a bright and sunny day, given that the weatherman says there’s only a 5% chance of rain. We might call this an almost-certain hope. There … Continue reading →

Posted in Eschatology | Tagged , , , , , , | 41 Comments

The Absolute Freedom of the Simple Life

Posted on 2 October 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

In the preceding article, “An Utterly Simple State of Affairs,” we were left with questions about divine freedom: specifically, if the act of creation of essential to the divine being, as Hugh McCann claims, how does this not entail the … Continue reading →

Posted in Hugh McCann | Tagged , , , , , , , | 23 Comments

Aquinas and Divine Freedom: God Might Have Willed Otherwise

Posted on 18 September 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Finally we come to the contentious question driving this series on Aquinas: Is the divine act of creation truly free? 7) God wills the world freely and non-necessarily (SCG 81–83, 88). While it may appear that if the metaphysically simple and … Continue reading →

Posted in Aquinas | Tagged , , , , , , , | 53 Comments

Dionysian Ponderings: To let be or not let be–that is the question

Posted on 8 July 2018 by Fr Aidan Kimel

Did the Lord God Almighty have to create the world? This is the question I now wish to pose to St Dionysius the Areopagite. It is a pressing question for Christian students of the Areopagite because he is so deeply … Continue reading →

Posted in Athanasius, Dionysius the Areopagite | Tagged , , , , , , , | 50 Comments