Britannica Sources used in this answer

How did Thomas Aquinas defend human freedom while teaching that God governs creation?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

St. Thomas Aquinas Enthroned Between the Doctors of the Old and New Testaments, with Personifications of the Virtues, Sciences, and Liberal Arts, fresco by Andrea da Firenze, c. 1365; in the Spanish Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. — Thomism *St. Thomas Aquinas Enthroned Between the Doctors of the Old and New Testaments, with Personifications of the Virtues, Sciences, and Liberal Arts*, fresco by Andrea da Firenze, c. 1365; in the Spanish Chapel of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence.

In his theology, St. Thomas Aquinas defended human freedom by arguing that God’s role as the prime mover does not conflict with human agency, but rather serves as its foundation.12

Aquinas maintained that God governs the universe through a creative Providence that wills each being to act in accordance with its own nature. Because humans are created with a voluntary nature, God moves them in a way that respects that nature. As Aquinas noted, just as God moving natural causes does not prevent their acts from being natural, His movement of voluntary causes does not deprive those actions of their voluntary character.21

Consequently, human freedom is not destroyed by divine governance; instead, it is realized through it. Aquinas held that man is self-moving in his intellectual and volitional existence, and that by granting creatures their own perfection, God demonstrates the perfection of His own creative power. To deny human free will would, in Aquinas's view, render moral concepts like commands, rewards, and punishments meaningless.21