Calvin

Aquinas

Total Depravity

Calvin follows Augustine in arguing that sin is born into us after the Fall. God made Adam totally depraved in sin as judgement – something we inherit (Eph 2:1). So “in Adam all die” (1 Cor 15:22) and Paul says “nothing good lives within me” (Rom 7:18). If I drop a few drops of poison in a glass of orange juice although not all the juice is poison, nonetheless the liquid is poisoned. So not everything we do is depraved, but all human nature is poisoned by depravity.

“Our nature is not only destitute of all good, but is so fertile in all evils that it cannot remain inactive. Everything in man, the understanding and will, the soul and body, is polluted and engrossed by this concupiscence; or, to express it more briefly, that man is of himself nothing else but inclined to evil”. (Institutes, Vol. I, Bk. II, Chap. 1, Para. 8; Allen translation.)

Image of God is tainted by sin

The Catholic Church believes that free will is still present in mankind “made in God’s image” and that the view of the Westminster Assembly is heresy, that "since Adam's sin, the free will of man is lost and extinguished".

However, the Council of Trent (1545) argued that humankind cannot "be justified before God by his own works,… without the grace of God through Jesus Christ".

“Human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin – an inclination to evil that is called concupiscence. Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle”. Catechism 405

Unconditional Election

This double predestination (of the elect and the damned) Calvin claims to derive from Augustine’s Massa Damnata (damned masses) whom Augustine implies form the majority of humankind (Eph 1; Roman 8:23 – 9:13).

“Election itself could not exist without being opposed to condemnation. God is said to separate those whom he adopts to salvation. Whom God passes by, therefore, he condemns, and from no other cause than his determination to exclude them from the inheritance which he predestines for his children. And the petulance of men is intolerable, if it refuses to be restrained by the word of God, which treats of his incomprehensible counsel, adored by angels themselves”. Institutes III, Chap. XXIII, Para. 1

Conditional election

Calvin’s doctrine was declared anathema by the Council of Trent (C16th) as predestination to hell was contrary to God’s goodness and a denial of free will and responsibility. Absolute assurance of salvation was also anathema, “a vain confidence” – apart form those with a special revelation from God. Christians could show only the probable fruits of their salvation – as absolute certainty breeds pride and over-confidence in one’s own status – and so be a disincentive to the fruits of good works necessary for salvation (including going to Mass, pleasure in prayer, concern for justice).

Catholics believe in predestination of the elect, not the damned. The foreknowledge of God, however, does not predetermine – free will is essential for responsibility. “In the election of those who are to be saved, the mercy of God precedes the merited good. In the condemnation, however, of those who are to be lost, the evil which they have deserved precedes the just judgment of God”. Council of Valence, 853

Limited atonement

Christ died only for the elect, those predestined to heaven.

This was the sovereign counsel, and most gracious will and purpose of God the Father, that the quickening and saving efficacy of the most precious death of his Son should extend to all the elect, for bestowing upon them alone the gift of justifying faith, thereby to bring them infallibly to salvation: that is, it was the will of God, that Christ by the blood of the cross, whereby he confirmed the new covenant, should effectually redeem out of every people, tribe, nation, and language, all those, and those only who were from eternity chosen to salvation, and given to him by the Father; that he should confer upon them faith, which together with all the other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit, he purchased for them by his death; should purge them from all sin, both original and actual, whether committed before or after believing: and having faithfully preserved them even to the end, should at last bring them free from every spot and blemish to the enjoyment of glory in his own presence forever”. (Canons of the Reformed Church, Article 2)

Unlimited atonement

“At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God’s love excludes no-one: “so it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish”. He affirms that he came ‘to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45): this last term is not restrictive…the church teaches that Christ died for everyone without exception. there has not, never was, never has been and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer”. Catechism 605 (source: here)

Aquinas stresses God’s love and justice as the source for the atonement of Christ, whereby he freely offered himself as a punishment for sin so that everyone can enjoy the fruits of his sacrifice.

Irresistible Grace

When God calls his elect no-one can resist the sovereign power of God’s grace.

“But when God accomplishes his good pleasure in the elect, or works in them true conversion, he not only causes the gospel to be externally preached to them, and powerfully illuminates their minds by his Holy Spirit; but by the efficacy of the same regenerating Spirit, pervades the inmost recesses of the man; he opens the closed, and softens the hardened heart, infuses new qualities into the will, which though up to now dead, he quickens; from being evil, and disobedient, he renders it good, obedient, and pliable; actuates and strengthens it, that like a good tree, it may bring forth the fruits of good actions”. Canons of Dort Article 11

Free will to resist grace

“Human beings are endowed with a spiritual soul, with intellect and free will”. (Catechism 1711)

Aquinas teaches that “God changes the will without forcing it. But he can change the will because he himself influences the will as he does in nature”. De Veritatis 22:9

Catholics believe every person has the possibility of salvation. “Since Christ died for all men we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers every person the possibility of sharing in the saving mystery of the cross”. (Gaudium et Spes 22).

Pope Innocent X declared irresistible grace a heresy in 1653.

Perseverance of the saints

Once saved, no one can fall back into unbelief, and we should have absolute assurance of our free salvation. God sustains the elect to the end. (Rom 8:35-9)

“Of this preservation of the elect to salvation, and of their perseverance in the faith, true believers for themselves may and do obtain assurance according to the measure of their faith, whereby they arrive at the certain persuasion, that they ever will continue true and living members of the church; and that they experience forgiveness of sins, and will at last inherit eternal life”. Canons of Dort, 1618

Perseverance is not guaranteed

Catholics believe some of the elect predestined to initial salvation can fall away and fail to achieve final salvation. (Romans 14:15; 20).

Aquinas taught that some do receive the gift of perseverance “after justification by grace, we still need to ask God for the gift of perseverance, that we may be kept from evil to the end of life. For to many grace is given to whom perseverance in grace is not given” (ST I:II 109 Q 10).

http://www.prca.org/fivepoints/chapter5.html

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02055a.htm