138 THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS 



is found even in protestant formularies, although there 

 obscured and practically caricatured by emphasis upon 

 superadded and uncatholic propositions. 



It is not catholic doctrine that fallen man is totally 

 depraved, so as to possess no good in him and no real 

 freedom, and that the virtues of the unregenerate are 

 splendid vices. The Catholic Church does not teach 

 that original sin is sin in the literal sense of that word, 

 as if the distinction between original and actual had 

 no meaning; or that the personal guilt of Adam is im- 

 puted to his offspring by God — previously to their 

 having committed sins of their own; or that God con- 

 signs to everlasting punishment all who die unregen- 

 erate, including unbaptized infants. The five points 

 of Calvinism, in particular absolute predestination of 

 certain to glory and of the rest to damnation irre- 

 spectively of foreknowledge of their deservings, and 

 irresistible grace — are not catholic doctrines, and 

 ought not to be allowed to complicate the doctrine of 

 the fall. The Church's dogmatic teaching is confined 

 to what is revealed; and God has not seen fit to reveal 

 more of the consequences of the fall than concern 

 the actual recipients of that revelation in working out 

 their own salvation. What is revealed suggests many 

 questions, and when we are more anxious to solve 

 problems than to assimilate what is revealed for our 

 salvation, the insolubility of these questions causes 



Cf. also J. F. Bethune-Baker, Early Hist, of Christ. Doctrine, ch. 

 xvii; and Hagenbach. The position of St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 

 I. xciii-cii., best represents the mediaeval period. 



