97. Divine Providence: Knowledge, Execution, and Secondary Causes
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Lecture Notes
Main Topics #
The Distinction Between Knowledge and Execution #
Thomas resolves apparent contradictions about divine providence through a crucial two-fold distinction:
- Knowledge/Reason (Ratio): God immediately provides for all things, including particulars, through His eternal understanding
- Execution/Governance (Gubernatio): God governs lower things through higher things—not from defect of power, but from the abundance of His goodness, to communicate causality to creatures
This distinction shows how God can know all particulars immediately while still using secondary causes to execute His providence.
God’s Causality Extends to Mode of Being #
God’s causality extends not only to whether things come about, but to how they come about:
- Some things by necessity
- Some things by contingency
- Some things by chance
- Some things by free choice
This means divine foresight makes what He foresees infallibly come to pass, but the mode of coming about (necessary or contingent) also falls under divine providence.
Responses to Classical Objections #
First Objection (Dignity and Ministers): A king’s dignity requires having ministers to carry out his providence. Therefore God should not provide for all things immediately.
Response: Dignity in having ministers lies in using them to execute one’s providence—not in lacking knowledge of what they will do. Perfect operative science requires knowing particulars, not just universals. The psychologist who knows an individual patient’s peculiarities can heal better than one applying stereotyped treatments.
Second Objection (Secondary Causes): If God provides for all things immediately, this excludes second causes.
Response: The distinction between knowledge and execution resolves this confusion. God immediately foresees everything in particular, yet uses secondary causes to carry out this order. These are not the same thing and one does not eliminate the other.
Third Objection (Knowledge of Evil): It is better not to know bad and vile things, since they impede consideration of better things. Therefore God should not have immediate knowledge of evil things.
Response: This reasoning applies to us but not to God. We cannot understand many things simultaneously, and knowledge of evil can pervert our will. Neither applies to God, who knows all things by one insight and whose will cannot be bent to evil. All knowledge as such is good—a perfection of mind. The knowledge of sickness is as much a perfection as knowledge of health.
Key Arguments #
The Argument from God’s Knowledge #
- God knows all things through His eternal understanding
- This knowledge extends to all particulars, down to the smallest details
- God’s knowledge of what will be caused determines in His reason the order of those effects
- Therefore, He must know the order beforehand
- This knowledge does not necessitate things but determines their mode of being
The Dignity of Causality in Creatures #
God’s motivation for using secondary causes:
- Not from defect of His power (He could do all immediately)
- From the abundance of His goodness
- To communicate the dignity of causality to creatures
- To enable creatures to become like Him, even as causes
- To establish an order among causes, which is better than an order among effects alone
Important Definitions #
Providence (Providentia): Two things pertain to it:
- The reason or knowledge of the order of things toward their end
- The execution or carrying out of this order, sometimes called gubernatio (governing)
Operative Science: Knowledge that is more perfect the more it considers particulars in which there is act. Medical healing of “this man” with his peculiar conditions is more perfect than applying general types of treatment.
Nature vs. Art: Nature is determined to one thing (a thing cannot be more than one thing); art is an ability for opposites. This is why rational creatures, having free will as an ability for opposites, require special providence.
Examples & Illustrations #
The Healing Analogy #
A medical doctor with experience may succeed better than one with mere theoretical knowledge because he knows the particular patient’s conditions. Healing must be adapted to “this man,” not to abstract types. Psychology classes prove this: when patients are classified by type and given stereotyped treatment, it often makes them worse.
The German Army #
German military officers were trusted to make decisions based on immediate battlefield conditions that higher generals couldn’t foresee. This is why they were more effective than armies requiring all decisions from above. By contrast, God is not in this position—He can foresee all particulars immediately, yet still chooses to govern through secondary causes for the sake of their dignity and the order among causes.
The Hand and Counsel #
In Ecclesiasticus 15:14, it says God “left man in the hand of his own counsel.” This does not exclude man from divine providence. Rather, it indicates that man has dominion over his acts through free will—unlike merely natural things that have no dominion over their own actions.
Notable Quotes #
“God’s causality extends not only that something will be, but how it will be—whether by necessity or by contingency”
“He gives to his beloved in sleep” (Psalm 126:2)—illustrating how divine providence operates even in human inactivity
“All knowledge as such is good. Not only the knowledge of the good is good, but even the knowledge of the bad is good as such. It’s a perfection of the mind to know what sickness is as well as to know what health is.”
“He governs the lower through the higher. Not because of the defect of his power, but on account of the abundance of his goodness, that he might communicate the dignity of causality to creatures.”
Questions Addressed #
Does Divine Providence Exclude Secondary Causes? #
No. God’s knowledge extends to all particulars immediately, but execution of this providence through secondary causes is a distinct matter. The abundance of God’s goodness moves Him to use creatures as causes, not from necessity but to share His causality and establish a better order.
Can God Know Evil Things If It’s Better Not to Know Them? #
Yes. The principle that it’s better not to know bad things applies only to limited intellects that cannot know all things at once and whose will can be perverted by such knowledge. God, knowing all things by one eternal insight with a will that cannot bend to evil, faces no such limitation.
How Do Particular Causes Work Under Universal Providence? #
What escapes the order of a particular cause through interference by another particular cause does not escape the order of the universal cause. A fortuitous event from the perspective of particular causes is foreseen within the universal providence of God.
Why Does God Permit Evil If He Provides for All Things? #
God, as universal provider, permits defects in particulars to preserve the perfect good of the whole. The corruption of one thing is the generation of another. Without evil, many goods would be lacking—the life of a lion requires the killing of animals; the patience of martyrs requires persecution.