Friday, November 08, 2019

Doctor Subtilis

Today is the feast of Bl. John Duns Scotus, the Subtle Doctor. From Ordinatio IV, d. 46, q. 1:

Justice, properly speaking, is the rectitude of a will that has been habituated; consequently, it inclines quasi-naturally to another or to oneself as if to another. And the divine will does not have any rectitude that inclines it determinately to anything other than to its own goodness as if to another, for it is related only contingently to any other object, in such a way that it can incline equally to and to its opposite. It follows, therefore, that God has only one justice: the justice that inclines him to render to his own goodness what befits his goodness.

[John Duns Scotus, Selected Writings on Ethics, Williams, tr., Oxford University Press (New York: 2017), p. 323.]