Prof. Thomas Osborne explains reprobation and the permission of sin in Thomas Aquinas as the asymmetrical counterpart to predestination, where God positively causes the grace and merits leading the elect to glory but only permits the sins of the reprobate without ever willing or causing moral evil, thus safeguarding both divine justice and human responsibility.

This lecture was given on September 6th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.

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About the Speakers:

Thomas M. Osborne, Jr. (Ph.D, Duke University, 2001) is the Frank A. Rudman Endowed Chair in Philosophy and the Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas. He has published widely on Thomas Aquinas, Thomism, and medieval and late scholastic philosophy. His interests cover moral psychology, ethics, political philosophy, and metaphysics. His latest book is Thomas Aquinas on Virtue (Cambridge University Press, 2024).

Keywords: Augustinian Theology of Grace, Calvinist Double Predestination, Divine Justice and Eternal Punishment, Divine Providence and Human Freedom, Grace, Negative and Positive Reprobation, Predestination and Foreseen Merits, Salvation, Sin

Reprobation and Permission of Sin – Prof. Thomas Osborne

The Thomistic Institute