Hi
I posted this in Ask an Apologist, but didn’t get an answer, I wonder if there is anyone can help.
My son, who is 18 and has just done a two year philosophy course, has just stumped me. This is the gist of his argument.
God gives all of us free will. The doctrine of Papal infallibility means that The Pope is prevented from making an error regarding faith and morals. How are these two principals compatible?
Thanks.
This is not an easy thing to explain and would be a good subject for a book.
The problem that faces most people with issues such as these is that they see things purely in black and white and forget the contextual shades of grey in-between. Context is a word I am continuously pushing in my debates on this forum because it solves allot of the problems that people suspect to be intractable.
1. First of all, a thing isn’t good merely because we say its good. What makes a thing good is the greatest overall good, or the goal to which the will is in act. The ultimate end or purpose for which we exist is what defines whether or not our actions are in agreement with what is good.
2. That which is good in one context can sometimes be evil in another context. For example, if a person sticks a syringe in somebodies arm for no reason while they are asleep, this is wrong. But if a person sticks a syringe in the arm of somebody in order to treat or save the life of an unconscious patient, no wrong has been done. The context has change the moral nature of the human act.
3. The applicability of freewill is dependent on the context in which an action is made. Take for instance, when a man or a women is trying to kill you, in that context you are allowed to reduce that persons freedom by putting that person in prison, and this is because the good of your safety in this particular context is greater than the freedom of the offender because the offenders freedom is no longer “good” since it is working against the “greater good” of your safety and dignity as a living person. However; in the greater context of God and the spiritual salvation of creation, it is good for God to permit evil since it is in the fundamental nature of love that humanity ought to have the dignity of freely choosing their salvation. This is because slavery in its ultimate sense is not love. In this context, Love has to be freely accepted or otherwise it ceases to be love. Notice again how context can greatly change the nature of free actions. In one context a particular kind of freedom was no-longer good; but in another context the freedom of human beings is absolutely vital to the dignity of human beings.
4. A contingent being does not exist of its own accord, and neither does it have any rights of its own accord. A contingent being receives its power of act, its moral dignity, and is sustained in existence, through the power of that which is necessarily real. The only being that has to exist, has any right to exist, and has the power to exist, is God. Everything else exists through the power of God and receives the good of its being from God. In other words, we do not generate our own reality, but rather God generates and sustains the reality in which we make our free actions.
5. Just like humanity has the right to defend itself against attackers, God also has the right to defend that which God wills, and what God will is our salvation. In the context of salvation, it is necessary that the truth of this salvation and everything that is required for its actuality is revealed to man without error.
6. When a man becomes a Pope, he is “freely” taking on the duty and vocation of guarding the truth of Gods salvation and has “recognised” that this truth can only be delivered without error through the power of the Holy spirit. Thus the Pope in “freely accepting” and becoming the Pope also understands that when he speaks ex-cathedra he is giving up his freedom for the “greater good” of humanities salvation to the holy spirit, so that the truths that are required for humanities salvation are communicated without human error. The Pope has chosen to be an infallible vessel of Gods truth in that circumstance, and the only way that can be achieved is by overriding the imperfect nature of the Pope and speaking through the vessel that is the Pope. Notice that in this context human freedom again is in fact an enemy of the “greater good”, and thus the overriding of that freedom in this particular context is to override “human imperfection and evil” and is not to undermine the good. Notice also that to become a Pope is freely choose to become a vessel of God. In general Christians are asked to give up their freedom to God. This is to say that were are commanded to submit to Gods infallible will.
I hope this helps. I am not an expect on theology; but this seems to me to be correct because now that we have the faith and the “greater good” in its proper “context” it completely removes the so called “contradiction”.
But it’s called PAPAL infallibility for a reason.