Thursday, May 23, 2024

James N. Anderson Offering a Reformed Understanding of the "Felix Culpa"

  

O FELIX CULPA

 

On the biblical Christian view, the evil in the world is a consequence of the fall. Moral evil is rampant because of original sin: we have all inherited a morally and spiritually corrupt nature form our forefather Adam, and thus we are inclined by nature toward selfishness and ungodliness. Natural evil is largely due to the curse placed on the natural world as a result of Adam’s sin.

 

But what of the fall itself? So much evil could have been avoided had God not permitted Adam’s sin, and surely the omniscient Creator knew that Adam would sin. Why then did God allow it? One powerful answer to the question comes in the form of the “O-Felix-Culpa” theodicy (literally “blessed fault” or “happy fault”), which was suggested by the medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas and has been received more recently by Alvin Platinga.

 

The reasoning behind the theodicy runs as follows. It is true that, all things being equal, a world with sin would be worse than a world without sin. But not all things are equal, because that simplistic comparison fails to take into account some of the features of this world that would be absent had sin never entered the world. For this world that would be absent had sin never entered the world. For this world is not only a world with sin, but also a world in which God in his great mercy took on human flesh in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, and made atoning sacrifice in order to redeem a people for himself so that they would enjoy eternal blessedness in fellowship with the triune God.

 

In short, our world is not simply a Genesis 1-3 world; it is also an Ephesians 1, Philippians 2, and Romans 3 world. Consequently, we have the privilege of knowing God not only as our Creator but also as our Redeemer. Our precious, because we have been redeemed from our sins and know God not merely as creatures but as forgiven sinners reconciled to him through Christ. None of that would be possible had God not permitted the fall. (James N. Anderson, “Whence This Evil? Toward a Biblical Theodicy,” in Ruined Sinners to Reclaim: Sin and Depravity in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspective, ed. David Gibson and Jonathan Gibson [The Doctrines of Grace Series; Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2024], 555)

 

Here is the relevant portion of the Summa Theologiae:

 

Reply Obj. 3. A double capability may be remarked in human nature:—one, in respect of the order of natural power, and this is always fulfilled by God, Who apportions to each according to its natural capability;—the other in respect to the order of the Divine power, which all creatures implicitly obey; and the capability we speak of pertains to this. But God does not fulfil all such capabilities, otherwise God could do only what He has done in creatures, and this is false, as stated above (I., Q. CV., A. 6). But there is no reason why human nature should not have been raised to something greater after sin. For God allows evils to happen in order to bring a greater good therefrom; hence it is written (Rom. 5:20): Where sin abounded, grace did more abound. Hence, too, in the blessing of the Paschal candle, we say: O happy fault, that merited such and so great a Redeemer! (STh., III q.1 a.3 ad 3)