Abstract
Nicole’s doctrine of general grace, which lies behind much of his thinking, appears to have been the outcome of his role in the defence of Jansenist theology in the Provinciates. It was, however, the firm and severe conviction of his fellow Jansenists that supernatural grace is not given to all men and they were wont to quote as authoritative St Augustine’s dictum: ‘Nature is common to all men, not grace.’ Nevertheless, this simple formula may appear too simple when set beside the distinctions which neo-scholastic theologians had come to make between various kinds of grace and their roles. It is in the light of these distinctions that both the development of the official Jansenist position and Nicole’s progress towards a less harsh and conservative doctrine must be examined.
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© 1972 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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James, E.D. (1972). The Argument for General Grace. In: Pierre Nicole, Jansenist and Humanist. International Archives of the History of Ideas, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2784-7_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2784-7_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-247-1282-3
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