Volume 1, Number 1 (Fall 2003)
Creation as Existential Contingency: A Response
Earl Muller, S.J.
Sacred Heart Seminary (Detroit)
ABSTRACT
Donald Keefe has consistently provided a trenchant critique of traditional Thomism. His paper for this
conference focuses this critique on the question of contingency in Thomas's thought and the necessity
ingredient in the Aristotelianism on which it is built. There are more resources in the thought of
Thomas himself that is supportive of Keefe's project than is generally recognized. I would also agree
with Keefe's observation that Thomas's system is an incomplete transformation of Aristotelianism.
Thomas's act-potency understanding of Christ is isolated from the rest of his Aristotelian-based system.
It is awkwardly understood in terms of the classic Thomistic correlations: form-matter, accident-substance,
existence-essence. Thomas is silent on this point as well as on the freedom required of the act-potency
correlation of divinity and humanity in Christ. This brings us back to the question that Keefe has
raised with regard to the issue of contingency, necessity, and freedom.
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