Molinism: Can It Reconcile Divine Providence and Human Freedom?

In this episode, Anthony Alberino and Andrew Payne critically interact with one of the most popular and philosophically sophisticated attempts to reconcile God’s sovereignty with human libertarian freedom: Molinism. We’ve already considered the Thomistic “Dual Sources” view with Dr. Matthews Grant, and in the last episode we examined Open Theism. Now, we look at Molinism — a view originating with the 16th-century Jesuit Luis de Molina and defended today by leading philosophers such as Alvin Plantinga, William Lane Craig, and Thomas Flint. Molinism hinges on the idea of middle knowledge: God’s knowledge of what any possible free creature would do in any possible circumstance. By appealing to middle knowledge, Molinists argue that God can sovereignly order the world while preserving genuine human freedom.

In this discussion, we:

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