HKB
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Often appears with: the problem of evil and theodicy · necessity vs contingency · fate, destiny, and necessity · efficacy of divine will · divination and oracles · conditional necessity
Usually: reflection (1) · sudden reversal of fortune (1) · detachment (1)
“Since then the divine will is perfectly efficacious, it follows not only that things are done, which God wills to be done, but also that they are done in the way that He wills.” Thomas, Aquinas, Saint, Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars) · observation
Aquinas argues God’s will does not impose absolute necessity on all things: some are necessary and some contingent according to how God prepares causes, so effects follow necessarily or contingently in the manner God wills.
The reason of this some have chosen to assign to intermediate causes, holding that what God produces by necessary causes is necessary; and what He produces by contingent causes contingent. This does not seem to be a sufficient explanation, for two reasons. First, because the effect of a first cause is contingent on account of the secondary cause, from the fact that the effect of the first cause is hindered by defici…