Dogmas of the Church - Ott

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I realise that Ott’s list of dogmas is not a Church document, albeit it is often referred to when people ask about infallible teachings.
Under the section God the Sanctifier number 13 is this:

" God, by an eternal resolve of His Will, predestines certain men, on account of their foreseen sins, to eternal rejection."

Is this not in contradiction with Church teaching?

CCC 1037 God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance.
 
Thank you for illuminating this issue. I have great respect for Ott, but must admit to being totally astonished upon reading his statement.
 
First, this is a very good book, even if some passages might be hard to understand at first.

Second, this is a theology book. This science actually requires one to be trained and study for years. This passage is one of the examples of its complexity.

Third, although we have free will, God may interfere by providing abundance of grace to someone so that they will never fall. These are the predestined. Yes, I am on the augustinian/thomist group in this regard. This doesn’t mean God doesn’t provide enough grace to everyone.

Why does He do this? We will know in the Last Judgment. Until then, trust His choices. He does things always for His greater glory and for the good of the souls…
 
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This is what Ott writes:

‘God, by an Eternal Resolve of His Will predestines certain men, on account of their foreseen sins, to eternal rejection.

‘The reality of Reprobation is not formally defined, but it is the general teaching of the Church. The Synod of Valence (855) teaches: ‘fatemur praedestinationem impiorum ad mortem’. Ott then references Denzinger 322:

‘Can. 3. But also it has seemed right concerning predestination and truly it is right according to the apostolic authority which says: “Or has not the potter power over the clay, from the same lump, to make one vessel unto honor, but another unto dishonor?” [Rom1. 9:21] ……. faithfully we confess the predestination of the elect to life, and the predestination of the impious to death ; in the election, moreover, of those who are to be saved, the mercy of God precedes the merited good. In the condemnation, however, of those who are to be lost, the evil which they have deserved precedes the just judgment of God…… (We believe) that God, who sees all things, foreknew and predestined that their evil deserved the punishment which followed, because He is just, in whom, as Saint Augustine says, there is concerning all things everywhere so fixed a decree as a certain predestination. To this indeed he applies the saying of Wisdom: "Judgments are prepared for scorners, and striking hammers for the bodies of fools " [Prov.19:29]. (‘Denzinger: The Sources of Catholic Dogma; my emphasis).

It is important to realise that the Church does not teach that certain persons have been predestined to evil by divine power. The Council of Orange pronounced anathema ‘upon those, if any, who wish to believe so great an evil’ (Denzinger 200).

Make of all this what you will.
 
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Antecedently God wills all to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4), but consequently, on account of their sins, wills some to be damned. No Catholic would disagree with that.

But since God has foreknowledge of our merits, the rewards and punishments due to each can be said to be pre-destined.

This is one of those things that is tough to wrap one’s head around. It caused St. Francis de Sales a lot of anxiety until he decided to just love and obey God and not worry about. That’s pretty good advice really.
 
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Montrose said:
I realise that Ott’s list of dogmas is not a Church document, albeit it is often referred to when people ask about infallible teachings.
Under the section God the Sanctifier number 13 is this:

" God, by an eternal resolve of His Will, predestines certain men, on account of their foreseen sins, to eternal rejection."

Is this not in contradiction with Church teaching?

CCC 1037 God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance.
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Catechism 1037 is covered in Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma also. The dogma of faith comes from Council of Orange II (529) and Council of Trent (1547).
There is a grace which is truly sufficient and yet remains inefficacious (gratia vere et mere sufficiens). (De fide)
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Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, p. 245:
The reality of Reprobation is not formally defined, but it is the general teaching of the Church. The Synod of Valence (855) teaches: fatemur praedestinationem impiorum ad mortem (D 322). It is declared in Mt. 25, 41 : Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels," and by Rom. 9, 22: “Vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction.”

b) According to the teaching of the Church, there is a conditioned positive reprobation, that is, it occurs with consideration of foreseen future demerits (post et propter praevisa demerita).

The conditional nature of Positive Reprobation is demanded by the generality of the Divine Resolve of salvation. This excludes God’s desiring in advance the damnation of certain men (cf I Tim. 2, 4; Ez. 33, II ; 2 Peter 3, 9).

St. Augustine teaches: “God is good, God is just. He can save a person without good works, because He is good; but He cannot condemn anyone without evil works, because He is just” (Contra Jul. III 18, 35).
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Catholic Encylopedia explains the limits of the various theories on predestination:
Owing to the infallible decisions laid down by the Church, every orthodox theory on predestination and reprobation must keep within the limits marked out by the following theses:
a) At least in the order of execution in time (in ordine executionis) the meritorious works of the predestined are the partial cause of their eternal happiness;
b) hell cannot even in the order of intention (in ordine intentionis) have been positively decreed to the damned, even though it is inflicted on them in time as the just punishment of their misdeeds;
c) there is absolutely no predestination to sin as a means to eternal damnation.
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Pohle, J. (1911). Predestination. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12378a.htm
 
Ott is a great resource and belongs in every Catholic home. I wouldn’t be without it.

However, as noted above, it is a theology book, and on top of that, it is translated from German. Some of the phraseology may, therefore, be a bit clumsy. Just something to take into account when reading it.
 
Niblo said:
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HomeschoolDad:
Ott is a great resource and belongs in every Catholic home. I wouldn’t be without it.
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Agreed. I have always liked the fact that he references his sources (mainly the Bible and Denzinger, both of which are easily checked).
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“Back in the day”, when Mr Nelson still owned and operated TAN Books, I bought everything from TAN that I could afford (as part of discretionary budget, that is — books were far from my top priority), and Ott was among these. As far as I can recall, TAN did not carry Denzinger. I got Jone’s Moral Theology hardbound, even though TAN carried a softbound version. TAN still does a decent job in preserving classic, traditional Catholic books, but in those days, they were the 800-pound gorilla, had everything under the sun. They were a major force in keeping the traditionalist Catholic movement educated and informed during those twenty-odd years during which the Church’s message, in a nutshell, was “embrace the new and put the old behind you”.

I also appreciate the fact that they used high-quality paper, so that books printed 30-40 years ago are still quite usable and do not smell, the way books printed on cheap paper do.
 
My copy of Ott is a TAN; published in 1974. Hardcover, and has kept well.

My Denzinger is a translation by Roy Deferrari, published by Loreto Publications, 2002.

I also have a PDF of a Latin version, but the print quality could be better!

Both OTT and Denzinger are excellent reading, and I retain a particular fondness for the former.
 
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I think it was necessary to clarify once and for all what the Church had never claimed: that God create some men in order to damn them.

Indeed, the last Catechism removes doubts even from the most doubtful.
 
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