Abstract
abstract: In the 1880s, Matthias Joseph Scheeben and Theodor Granderath argued over how to interpret Thomas Aquinas’s teaching in Summa Theologiae I–II, q. 114, a. 3 on the relation between the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and condign merit. Scheeben pointed to this passage as evidence that his view that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as uncreated grace is in harmony with Aquinas. He argued that Aquinas’s phrase “the grace of the Holy Spirit” indicates that, for Aquinas, two principles are necessary for condign merit: created grace and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as uncreated grace. This is a misreading of Aquinas, which stemmed from Scheeben’s attempt to reconcile his Greek patristic-inspired theology of divine indwelling with Latin Scholasticism. This analysis lends support to the opinion that Aquinas understood grace primarily as created, not as uncreated, as some scholars have recently argued. It also suggests that Scheeben should be regarded as a “Thomist” only in a qualified sense.