Circumstances

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Often appears with: venial sin · tolle lege · sin, guilt, and repentance · mortal sin species · justice as a virtue · judgment, heaven, and hell · fortune and the turn of the wheel · fate, destiny, and necessity · bibliomancy · augustine · anger and drunkenness

Usually: argument (1) · narrative (1) · sudden reversal of fortune (1) · temptation (1) · curiosity (1) · detachment (1) · wonder (1)

Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) primary

Thomas, Aquinas, Saint · c. 1265–1273
PART I-II ("Prima Secundae") > Part (Suppl., Q. 78, A. 1, Obj. 1). If, however, it be true, as others hold, that they will never die, (an opinion which Jerome mentions among others in a letter to Minerius, on the Resurrection of the Body--Ep. cxix), then we must say in reply to the objection, that although they are not to die, the debt of death is none the less in them, and that the punishment of death will be remitted by God, since (46/52)

Thomas claims a circumstance cannot make a venial sin mortal unless it adds deformity from another species, so time or frequency alone does not change the sin’s species without added factors like contempt.

acquire a new species through being repeated or prolonged, unless by chance something supervene in the repeated or prolonged act to change its species, e.g. disobedience, contempt, or the like. We must therefore reply to the objection by saying that since anger is a movement of the soul tending to the hurt of one's neighbor, if the angry movement tend to a hurt which is a mortal sin generically, such as murder or ro…

Theodicy primary

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Freiherr von · 1710-1711
book with much acrimony. But the accused won his case in a Synod. > PART TWO (1/80)

Leibniz illustrates how small circumstances can redirect salvation, recounting St. Augustine’s “Take and read” moment and related accounts of Steno, then proposes that chance can decisively affect eternal outcomes.

107. Hitherto I have devoted myself to giving a full and clear exposition of this whole subject: and although I have not yet spoken of M. Bayle's objections in particular, I have endeavoured to anticipate them, and to suggest ways of answering them. But as I have taken upon myself the task of meeting them in detail, not only because there will perhaps still be passages calling for elucidation, but also because his ar…