w of salvation? If it is true that God's foreknowledge does not cause free decisions and humans are incapable of coming to God on their own, how does anyone enter into the kingdom? At this point it would be helpful to distinguish different categories of causes. Aristotle points to four kinds of causes for any given effect: (1) material, (2) efficient, (3) formal and (4) final or ultimate. God is the final or ultimate cause of all things but not the material or efficient cause of all things. Put simply, God efficiently, materially and ultimately causes regeneration of the soul. He creates the conditions under which humans can freely love him (freedom = the material cause), lovingly persuades some to believe (enabling grace = the efficient cause) and carries them on to completion in the eternal state (gift of perseverance = final or ultimate cause). Augustine, throughout his writings, exonerates God of being the efficient cause of evil. That God decrees, in an ultimate sense, the means and the ends does not entail him being responsible for them.33 Application of a singular causality principle to the metaphysical problem of freedom and evil is short-sighted, not to mention an informal fallacy. That freedom is, in itself, a good thing given by God to the creature. Augustine states "free will, . . . is a good thing divinely bestowed, and that those are to be condemned who make a bad use of it."34 The cause of human freedom is God, yet the cause of sin and evil is the use of freedom, which is in accordance with the antecedent inclination of the will. Augustine illustrates the responsible/irresponsible use of a good thing. If you see a man without feet you will admit that, from the point of view of the wholeness of his body, a very great good is wanting. And yet you would not deny that a man makes a bad use of his feet who uses them to hurt another or to dishonour himself.35 Due to a sinful disposition or the bias toward e...
