Garrigou-Lagrange

The Three Ages of the Interior Life : Prelude of Eternal Life is a book written by French theologian Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange in 1938. It explains the entire Catholic tradition on the spiritual life covering virtually all aspects of the faith.

Translation of Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, "Du caractère métaphysique de la Théologie morale de saint Thomas, en particulier dans ses rapports avec la prudence et la conscience," Revue Thomiste 30 (1925): 341-355.  To be published by Nova et Vetera in Winter 2019

Published from 1899 to 1950 the Dictionnaire de théologie catholique has long been considered the incarnation of conservative doctrinal positions. Revisiting articles that examine areas and methods of theology, such as the canon Albert Michel’s « Fondamentale ou générale (théologie) », Ambroise Gardeil’s « Lieux théologiques », Thomas Deman’s « Salamanque (théologiens de) », Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange’s « Thomisme » or even Yves Congar’s « Théologie », one in fact realizes the extent to which the Dictionnaire de théologie catholique actively contributed to the major epistemological debates and helped revitalize the field of contemporay catholic theology.

Publié de 1899 à 1950, le Dictionnaire de théologie catholique a longtemps été considéré comme l’incarnation de positions doctrinales conservatrices. À parcourir les articles qui traitent en son sein des domaines et des méthodes de la théologie, comme les articles « Fondamentale ou générale (théologie) » du chanoine Albert Michel, « Lieux théologiques » d’Ambroise Gardeil, « Salamanque (théologiens de) » de Thomas Deman, « Thomisme » de Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange ou encore « Théologie » d’Yves Congar, force est de constater que le Dictionnaire de théologie catholique a en réalité activement participé aux grands débats épistémologiques qui ont contribué à renouveler profondément le champ de la théologie catholique contemporaine.

Fr. Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., was and is the greatest theologian of the twentieth century. Recognizing this fact is not to diminish other theologians of the postconciliar period who were lionized for lesser talents, but only to understand why his work is now experiencing an extraordinary and welcome revival among a new generation that is looking for a more stable footing. It's easy to understand his attraction when you begin to inhabit the comprehensive scope, coherence, and power of his thought, so well communicated here and throughout his corpus. We owe a great debt to Matthew Minerd for so masterfully translating Garrigou-Lagrange's monumental two-volume work on divine Revelation-a work of such exquisite depth and wisdom that one could confidently rebuild and refresh the entirety of Catholic theological education upon these forgotten and fecund foundations. We see here in these volumes, as if held high in a magnificent monstrance, the triumph of truth itself."

This article aims to show that for Thomas Aquinas the condition of humanity in the state of original sin, and the condition of man in the state of pure nature are one and the same. I show that Thomas holds the natural principles from which humanity is composed to be incapable of producing a state of Integral Nature. Deprived of the sanctifying grace that produces the state of Original Justice, and left in a condition of "pure nature," operating by the principles that it possesses through its nature alone, humanity necessarily suffers the disorders of the state of Original Sin.

Despite living in an “information age,” we are confronted by the clash of ideologies and a crisis of universal knowledge. The Church is not unaffected by the world’s weariness and similarly faces what Fr. Mauro Gagliardi describes as “the lack of truth, or perhaps better, the disinterest in it.” Today’s philosophical and doctrinal decline are the results of the loss of first principles and a relativistic view of doctrinal development.

This first-time English translation of Fr. Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange’s Le sens commun: La philosophie de l’être et les formules dogmatiques by the acclaimed translator Matthew Minerd couldn’t come at a better time. This book sees the great Dominican master address a variety of fundamental topics that we need to return to and relearn in our day: the relationship between common sense and both philosophy and faith; the proper defense for philosophical realism; the subordination and coordination of philosophical first principles; our natural capacity for knowing God’s existence; and, at length, the problem of dogmatic development.

Although originally written during the Catholic Modernist crisis at the turn of the twentieth century, Thomistic Common Sense is no mere relic of past controversies. Jacques Maritain, for example, while reflecting on his formation as a Thomist, cited it as particularly influential. In our own time, this book serves as a foundational textbook of Thomistic philosophy, communicating its wisdom with clarity, power, and perennial resonance.



Réginald Marie Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. (1877–1964), was a French Catholic theologian and leading Thomist of the twentieth century who taught at the Dominican Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelicum, in Rome from 1909 to 1960.

Matthew K. Minerd, PhD, is a Ruthenian Catholic, husband, and father, serving as a professor of philosophy and moral theology at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Pittsburgh, PA. He has been published in Nova et Vetera, The American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, The Review of Metaphysics, Études Maritainiennes, Downside Review, and Homiletic and Pastoral Review. He has also served as a translator or editor for volumes published by Emmaus Academic, Cluny Media, and The Catholic University of America Press.



“Students, teachers, and the intellectual community generally owe a debt of gratitude to Matthew Minerd for undertaking this translation of the Sens Commun of Fr. Réginald Garrigou-Langrange. This important philosophical work addresses topics as timely now as they were when it was published nearly a century ago:  the foundations of human knowledge, the power of human reason to know God, the relationship between faith and reason, the dynamics of the development of doctrine. Readers of this book will understand why the works of this master teacher are lately enjoying a phenomenal revival.  Having influenced countless Thomists in the twentieth century, the voice of Garrigou-Lagrange retains its vibrancy and relevance in the twenty-first.”

Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, O.P.
Vatican City



“Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange enjoys a comeback! This is fitting inasmuch as the Dominican author masterfully exposes the order of things. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange never ceases to champion a key truth of both philosophy and theology: All contingent being depends upon God’s absolute actuality. The latter premoves and perfects the former. In this book, Garrigou-Lagrange shows how God’s being, truth, and goodness perfect even the contingencies of human knowing and loving. The author further illuminates how theology reaches beyond dialectical inquiry and historical genealogy. Instead of expounding what others say about God or how they do theology, the author shows us how theology can attain a true knowledge of God and the things that pertain to God. Garrigou-Lagrange restores dignity to the ‘Queen of the Sciences.’ This volume serves well to introduce students to sound Christian pedagogy. In fact, the recognition that Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange displays the best of la clarté française probably accounts for one of the reasons that contemporary young scholars find his work so engrossing and informative.”

Fr. Romanus Cessario, O.P.
Adam Cardinal Maida Chair of Theology
Ave Maria University



“It is impossible to understand the 20th century discussion of the nature of dogma and of dogmatic development as well as modern magisterial teaching thereon without Garrigou-Lagrange’s Le sens commun, and many will be grateful for Matthew Minerd’s translation.”

Fr. Guy Mansini, O.S.B.
Max Seckler Chair of Theology
Ave Maria University



“Despite being one of the most important Catholic philosophical works of the twentieth century, Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange’s Common Sense has remained unavailable in English for over a century.  This remarkable book provided what many considered to be the definitive statement of common sense philosophy in the modern era. It influenced generations of theologians, was read and discussed by the nouveaux théologians during their formation in the 1920s, and was the principle behind all of Garrigou’s interventions in the nouvelle theologie affair in the 1940s, even eventually influencing St. John Paul II’s philosophical thought. Published at the height of the Modernist crisis, it served as a preamble and roadmap to virtually all of Garrigou’s future philosophical work, which was essentially an extended excursus of common sense and it’s implications.  Natural Theology, the philosophical foundations of Revelation, principles of non-contradiction and final causality, and the immutability of dogma all are treated here in this remarkable synthesis. As we’ve come to expect from Dr. Matthew Minerd, this volume is a translation of the highest quality, readable and faithful to the original text, always conscientiously providing—and completing, in many cases—the extensive original footnotes.”

John Kirwan
Assistant Professor of Theology and Director of Graduate Programs in Theology
University of St. Thomas, Houston



“Why do we trust common sense? Is there an authentic “common-sense philosophy”? Can common sense grasp the meaning of Christian dogma? In his wide-ranging and luminous exploration of these questions, Garrigou-Lagrange reinvigorates our hope of fulfilling the innate human desire (eloquently stressed by John Paul II in Fides et Ratio) for truth that is universal and universally accessible, on both the natural and supernatural planes. We are all in Dr. Minerd’s debt for bringing this work to English-speaking readers in such a lucid and insightfully-annotated translation.”

Francis Feingold
Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Chair of Pre-Theology Program
St. Patrick’s Seminary and University, Menlo Park

Foreword to THE SENSE OF MYSTERY: CLARITY AND OBSCURITY IN THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE, by Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.; trans. Matthew K. Minerd
(Steubenville, OH: Emmaus Academic, 2017), xiii–xxx.

Foreword: "Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. (1877– 1964): Theologian, Thomist, Contemplative."

[NB: Pagination here different from published version]

The doctrine of physical premotion (praemotio physica) has as one of its greatest proponents and defenders the eminent twentieth-century Thomist, Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange (1877-1964). Within the Thomist collective, however, physical premotion is not unanimously accepted. As such, there is a question as to whether the doctrine is problematic on its own terms and, more importantly as regards the current inquiry, whether it is faithful in presenting Thomas Aquinas’s own views as expressed in his writings. While some mention will be made to the first of these questions in the conclusion, it is the latter question upon which this paper will focus, specifically with respect to Garrigou-Lagrange’s understanding and articulation of the doctrine explicated in some of his major works. Thus, the primary aim of the paper will be to properly establish Garrigou-Lagrange’s doctrine of physical premotion and to compare this with a brief analysis of the principal texts supporting it so as to determine whether Aquinas’s view is preserved.

Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange fue uno de los teólogos más prolíficos e influyentes del siglo xx. A lo largo de este artículo, repasaremos los principales episodios de su vida y reseñaremos sus obras más destacadas que nos permitirán comprender los tres pilares fundamentales de su pensamiento. Estos tres pilares coinciden con las tres sabidurías -filosófica, teológica e infusa- cultivadas por la espiritualidad dominicana. El pilar filosófico es sintetizado en la afirmación del principio de identidad; el pilar teológico es sintetizado en la defensa del estatuto científico de la ciencia sagrada, y el pilar místico o infuso es sintetizado en la inhabitación trinitaria mediante la gracia santificante.

The author argues in this paper that a sound investigation into the study of knowledge reveals that the so-called “critical problem” of modern philosophy is merely contrived, based on false premises, and does not present a genuine challenge to the justification of objective knowledge, inasmuch as the problem can be reduced to absurdity and is based on gratui­tous assumptions about the nature of knowledge and the knowing subject.

Is it necessary for all Christians – including Christians who are metaphysicians with demonstrative knowledge of God’s existence – to hold by faith that God exists? I shall approach this apparently straightforward question by investigating two opposing lines of interpretation of Thomas Aquinas’s own response to this question. I shall begin with two texts from Thomas that motivate two incompatible theses concerning Thomas’s doctrine of the harmony of faith and reason with respect to the existence of God. Next, I shall clarify the salient points of disagreement between these two interpretations of faith and reason in Thomas Aquinas before examining dialectically a number of arguments in favor and against the respective theses of these two interpretations. In the final section I shall argue that the results of our dialectical inquiry reveal that the initial disagreement between the two positions is not irresolvable. Accordingly, I shall conclude by proposing two revised versions of the initial theses that emphasize the compatibility of these two interpretations of Thomas Aquinas’s doctrine of the harmony of faith and reason.

This article outlines the implications of the Thomistic understanding of predestination for Mariology, providing for a robust understanding of her grace and the great intimacy between Mary and Christ. It is, I think, a speculative treatment with spiritual implications. The work argues along lines espoused by St. Thomas and St. Augustine (and developed by the Thomistic commentators, especially Garrigou-Lagrange who plays prominently herein) that it is Mary’s divine maternity which is the source and cause of her plentitude of grace. Her free cooperation with God’s grace effects a most fitting mother, not just of Christ’s human nature, but a mother of the unified Person of Jesus Christ.

Como los hábitos resumen nuestra vida al modo de una segunda naturaleza, Santiago Ramírez sostiene que ésta debe indagarse desde su principio, comenzado por los hábitos principales que determinan nuestro conocer y obrar. Rescatando el aspecto metafísico y psicológico del hábito, el P. Ramírez explica que la distinción real existente entre hábito y disposición en el predicamento qualitas es un aporte original de Santo Tomás a la filosofía. Por otro lado, el teólogo dominico enseña que los hábitos de intellectus y de synderesis cualifican a nuestra potencia intelectual para obrar de modo infalible su acto propio, asemejándonos de algún modo a los ángeles: debido a que la naturaleza es el fin de la generación, resulta necesario analizar el origen de los primeros principios si queremos entender la naturaleza de estos hábitos.

Estoy convencido de que la doctrina del padre Garrigou-Lagrange puede hacer mucho bien a las almas, sea mediante la lectura y meditación de sus obras místicas, sea mediante sus escritos apologéticos, filosóficos o teológicos. No sin razón, el papa Pablo VI lo definió como «ilustre teólogo, fiel servidor de la Iglesia y de la Santa Sede».

Recent Thomistic discussions about Divine Grace and Human Freedom continue to consider the prospects of human moral action in the state of “Pure Nature,” influenced on this point especially by the writings of Garrigou-Lagrange and his taxonomy of the different possible states in which humanity might exist, both actually and hypothetically. Two of the hypothetical states of human existence that Garrigou-Lagrange presents are those of Pure Nature and of Integral Nature, in both of which humanity is not ordered to or raised to any end beyond those which it can attain by its natural principles of operation.
These two states differ, however, for in the state of Pure Nature, those natural principles operate at cross-purposes, resulting in a necessarily-disordered human life that fails to attain its proper natural end. In this condition of Pure Nature, humanity lacks integrity of body, of powers and of operation. Garrigou-Lagrange thus distinguishes a separate hypothetical state, whereby humanity is aided by an infusion of grace that is supernatural in origin, but not in its end or its operation. By these praeternatural gifts, humanity is given the additional help necessary for the integrity of body, of virtues and of operations, such that some (perhaps very few) people are able to attain the perfect happiness proportionate to human nature. Yet by positing this gratuitous integrity as a principle of perfect natural operation, this hypothesis runs up against a limit: this perfect operation of adhering to God as one’s object of natural beatitude is taken to both the cause of integrity, but also the result of a prior integrity whereby the diverse powers of the soul pose no obstacle to that perfect operation (as they do in the state of Pure Nature).
Present discussions of grace and free-will that seek to continue the commentatorial tradition and employ the hypothetical state of Integral Nature will need to distinguish explicitly the state of Pure Nature from the state of Integral Nature, and also to account for the integrating principle, either internal or external, by which that integrity is effected such that it is capable of producing, but not presupposing, an attainment of a happiness proportionate to the unelevated powers of human reason. Some authors such as Steve Long do this implicitly, but might benefit from explicitly accounting for how those principles function, and how this account diverges from the account Thomas Aquinas gives of this same possibility.

Reproduced with kind permission from 'Theofilus' Vol. 8, n 1, 2016

The theological sensibility of Radical Orthodoxy in its quest to return to traditional sources of orthodoxy for a ‘radical’ critique of secular thought has particularly privileged the thought of Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) as the pinnacle of the ‘ancient way’ prior to the nominalistic ‘fall’ which entered with Duns Scotus. This paper however questions whether Radical Orthodoxy has been radically Thomistic enough in its metaphysics and particularly highlights the importance of first principles of knowledge such as the law of non-contradiction to Thomas Aquinas. Whereas Aquinas insisted that God cannot break the law of non-contradiction, key RO writers have argued that this law is somehow suspended in God. This paper argues that compromising the law of non-contradiction weakens RO’s critique of secularism and opens up the possibility of nihilism.

written in 2012 for a doctoral course on grace, based in part on my Master’s thesis in Philosophy (2010-2011), which was based largely on stuff I wrote as a teenager (c. 2001-2003), thus not the most mature treatment of this incredibly complex topic, about which I’ve been writing a book for a few years now

This article, to be published in 2019, presents an exposition of the formation of a properly proportional analogical notion, doing so as a kind of quasi-pedagogical exposition of metaphysical methodology.  It does so by utilizing the Aristotelian and developed Thomistic position concerning the phenomenon of life, considered first from the perspective of the philosophy of nature and then, after sufficient analogical explication, from the perspective of metaphysics.

Following the Second Vatican Council, the predominant trend in Catholic moral theology has been decidedly antagonistic toward the tradition that dominated moral theology before the Council, namely the use and formulation of ecclesiastically-approved “manuals” or “handbooks” of moral theology, the contents of which chiefly involved general precepts of morally good and bad behavior as well as the extension of those precepts to particular cases. In this paper, I will oppose the dominant anti-manual trend. More particularly, I will first sketch what I take to be the central aspects of the manual tradition. Second, I will provide several arguments in favor of this tradition. Last, I will raise and respond to objections to this tradition that feature prominently in the works of Pinckaers and Cessario.

At the end of 1923, Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange published Perfection chrétienne et contemplation. The book is a masterful synthesis that presents to the public the Thomistic system of extended mysticism defended by the Dominicans in the journal La Vie spirituelle since 1919. Against the supporters of the theses characteristic of a restricted mysticism, the representatives of Thomist orthodoxy clearly won the victory in 1923. To embody a theological sensibility whose doctrinal domination is now accepted but whose theses give rise to abusive interpretations nevertheless attributes new responsibilities to the theologians who animate La Vie spirituelle. From 1923 to 1927, Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange was thus gradually led to moderate the radical nature of his theological positions.
À la fin de 1923, le P. Garrigou-Lagrange publie Perfection chrétienne et contemplation. Le livre constitue une magistrale synthèse qui présente au public le système thomiste de la mystique étendue telle que le dominicain l’a défendu dans la revue La Vie spirituelle depuis 1919. Face aux partisans des thèses caractéristiques de la mystique restreinte, les représentants de l’orthodoxie thomiste ont clairement remporté la victoire en 1923. Incarner une mouvance dont la domination doctrinale est désormais admise mais dont les thèses donnent lieu à des interprétations abusives fait pourtant peser de nouvelles responsabilités sur les théologiens qui animent La Vie spirituelle. De 1923 à 1927, le P. Garrigou-Lagrange est ainsi progressivement conduit à modérer la radicalité de ses engagements.

On a jusqu’ici prêté trop peu d’attention à ce qu’il pouvait y avoir de révélateur d’une mutation profonde de la science théologique dans le monumental Dictionnaire de théologie catholique publié de 1899 à 1950 par les éditions Letouzey et Ané. Loin d’avoir été le défenseur d’une conception conservatrice de la théologie, le « Vacant et Mangenot », dont la réalisation commence au temps de la crise moderniste, a su faire place à des travaux qui manifestent le souci de rééquilibrer les rôles respectifs de la théologie spéculative et de la positive. Le présent article entend montrer qu’à plusieurs égards, la démarche théologique mise en œuvre dans le Dictionnaire de théologie catholique rejoint les impératifs épistémologiques et méthodologiques définis à la même époque par les grands représentants de l’école du Saulchoir.

My dissertation focuses on a certain conversation within 20 th century Thomism regarding physical premotion, grace, and the permission of evil, especially as these things affect our understanding of the mystery of predestination. In the 1900s, the centuries-long quarrel between the Dominican Thomists and the Jesuit Molinists had cooled considerably. This gave rise, then, to a division within the Thomistic (and largely Dominican) camp itself. While the Dominican and Jesuit contest, moderated by the Vatican's Congregatio de Auxiliis, had centered around the question of divine omnipotence, foreknowledge, and human liberty, those involved in the 20 th century, intra-Thomistic disagreements outlined in this dissertation all rejected the scientia media of Luis de Molina and the traditional Jesuit position on grace and divine causality. Instead, this new disagreement focused on the traditional Dominican treatment as it related to God's innocence in the face of human suffering and evil. What we might call the 20 th century reformers or revisionists sought to distance Thomism from charges that it was too close to the double predestination or positive reprobation of Jansenism or Calvinism. While the Dominicans had been on the offensive during the theological sparring associated with the Congregatio, perhaps they had not sufficiently defended themselves from the Molinist claims that they had made God out to be primarily responsible for the reality of sin. This revisionist camp wanted to properly elucidate what it called the dissymmetry between the line of good and the line of evil. In other words, it wished to show the great difference in regard to how God moves the free creature to the good act but is not at all related to the misuse of human freedom in the sinful act. The major figures within this camp include

Praemotio physica is among the most controverted doctrines of the Thomistic tradition. There are two general questions that have given the debate its shape over the centuries. First, granted that later authors invented the term praemotio physica, can the doctrine be found materially in the writings of the St. Thomas Aquinas? Second, is the doctrine a sound one? Brian Shanley, a distinguished interpreter of Aquinas and the Thomistic tradition, answers both questions in the negative. According to Shanley, the partisans of praemotio physica-namely, Domingo Báñez and his disciples-go beyond Aquinas and treat of matters that the Angelic Doctor wisely preferred to leave in the realm of mystery. In advocating premotionism, Báñezians have got themselves into a dangerous spot, thinks Shanley, for their doctrine compromises divine transcendence,1 human freedom,2 and the reality of secondary causation,3 and it further runs the risk of making God the direct cause of evil.4

El artículo repasa el debate que enfrentó a estos grandes autores tomistas durante dos años (1934-1936). Según J. Maritain, la filosofía moral es el tipo más perfecto de filosofía cristiana y, por esta razón, ella no puede prescindir de la Revelación. Es decir, si la filosofía moral quiere permanecer complète et adéquate en su objeto, debe considerar al hombre no según su sola naturaleza, sino también, según su estado de naturaleza caída y redimida, en relación con su verdadero fin último que es sobrenatural. De allí que S. Ramírez critique, por un lado, el error epistemológico cometido por el filósofo francés al no distinguir los objetos formales de la filosofía y la teología; y, por otro, no considerar que el fin último del hombre efectivo no es el mismo que el propio.

El estatuto epistemológico de la filosofía cristiana ha sido motivo de grandes controversias, particularmente en la década de 1930. Si bien, Santiago Ramírez no desarrolló formalmente un tratado de filosofía cristiana, ésta se encuentra contenida virtualiter en su pensamiento. Asumiendo el orden especulativo de sus tratados, en este artículo se explicitan las estructuras ontológica y psicológica de la filosofía cristiana, representadas por su objeto y hábito correspondiente. Luego de la revelación, existe una captación más intensa del objeto y una mayor asimilación intelectual del hábito metafísico, aunque esto no constituya formalmente una nueva ciencia: la filosofía cristiana no es distinta sino fundamentalmente metafísica.

Es lunes, 17 de mayo de 1999. El encuentro con el P. Alvaro Huerga está fijado para las 9:30 en su residencia del madrileño barrio de Atocha 1 . Llego con dos minutos de retraso, el P. Huerga sale a recibirme al jardín. Entramos en su casa y nos instalamos en su biblioteca. El P. Alvaro Huerga me habla de sus futuros proyectos… Llega el momento de conectar la grabadora.

Kilka słów o książce Anny Mandreli Tomizm Garrigou-Lagrange’a wobec wizji filozoficznej Teilharda de Chardin.

Książka Anny Mandreli jest studium niewątpliwie wartościowym i na ile się orientuję pierwszym tego typu w Polsce. Jakkolwiek myśl Teilharda de Chardin – francuskiego jezuity – jest dobrze znana, również w naszym kraju, co niewątpliwie jest owocem wzrostu jej popularności pod koniec XX wieku, tak studia nad myślą i dziełem Garrigou-Lagrange’a, jak pokazałem, są w powijakach. Autorka porównując myśl obu autorów, stara się pokazać, na ile poglądy francuskiego jezuity (zwłaszcza wątki ewolucyjne i panteistyczne) podpadają pod krytykę modernizmu, którą formułuje uczony dominikanin. Zadanie to było tym trudniejsze, że profesor Angelicum tylko w jednym tekście odwołuje się expressis verbis do pism Teilharda de Chardin.

Thomas Osborne has asserted that ‘No one has developed an argument against premotion that works if the distinctions made by the Thomists are granted.’ This article attempts to form just such an argument. Specifically, it argues that the Thomistic system – even with the distinctions it relies on having been granted – cannot account for human freedom, at least not in a sense sufficiently strong to sustain human guilt for sin. Further, it argues that the Thomists, by their own clear though tacit admission, acknowledge this insufficiency.

En 1588, el jesuita Luis de Molina publicaría su famosa Concordia liberi arbitrii cum gratiae donis, en la cual intenta defender –contra el fatalismo protestante- la libre determinación de la voluntad con respecto a su fin último sobrenatural. Sin embargo, las explicaciones teológicas del P. Molina suponen graves errores metafísicos, particularmente con respecto al concurso general o simultáneo de  Dios sobre las causas segundas en las que Dios no obra in sino cum causa, donde la acción de la creatura determina al Creador a producir conjuntamente un efecto. A partir de la Apología de los Padres Dominicos que recoge la doctrina de Santo Tomás acerca de la premoción física, procederemos en la crítica de esta tesis molinista: sólo Dios es Acto Puro y por eso es causa del movimiento actualizador tanto de las potencias naturales como espirituales, pues todo efecto –sea contingente o necesario– depende de la voluntad divina que trasciende todo orden de necesidad y contingencia: de allí que sólo Dios puede mover eficazmente nuestro intelecto y voluntad, y no por eso nuestros actos dejan de ser  nuestros y personales.

Le dominicain français Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange (1877-1904) est rapidement tombé dans l’oubli au lendemain du concile Vatican II. Sa réputation de théologien acharné à défendre un thomisme étroitement orthodoxe a fini par occulter la stature d’un auteur qui a été au nombre des voix les plus importantes de la théologie française de l’entre-deux-guerres et la portée indéniablement novatrice de sa contribution au débat contemporain sur la mystique. Le P. Garrigou-Lagrange a été le premier titulaire en 1917 de la chaire de théologie ascétique et mystique nouvellement créée à l’Angelicum. Il est l’un des fondateurs en 1919 de la revue La Vie spirituelle. Dès les premières livraisons, le dominicain se lance dans la publication d’une série d’articles qui va aboutir à la publication en 1923 de son ouvrage monumental intitulé Perfection chrétienne et contemplation et dont la visée presque explicite est d’imposer sur la scène théologique de la catholicité une école dominicaine de spiritualité et d’en faire triompher les thèses caractéristiques. Projet scientifique qui a été soutenu par une stratégie éditoriale et polémique dont l’année 1923 a été le point culminant.