All thinkers
Saint · Early modern
St. Francis de Sales
1567–1622 · Salesian spirituality (devout humanism)
Doctor of the Church
Latin
Doctor of the Church (Doctor Caritatis), canonized 1665, declared Doctor 1877; patron of writers and journalists.
Bishop of Geneva in exile at Annecy, Francis reconverted the Chablais from Calvinism by patient preaching and leaflets, founded the Visitation with St. Jane de Chantal, and in the Introduction to the Devout Life taught that holiness is possible in every state of life. His Treatise on the Love of God is a complete theology of charity, Molinist in its account of grace and tender in its account of the heart's attraction to God.
Why he matters: He made the universal call to holiness a practical program three centuries before Vatican II, and his gentleness (“a spoonful of honey”) is the Catholic answer both to Calvinist rigor and to Jansenist severity.
Reading
-
Introduction to the Devout LifeSt. Francis de Sales · The classic for lay people; Parts I–III are enough to start.
-
Treatise on the Love of GodSt. Francis de Sales · The theology behind the Introduction; Books I–II and IX especially.
-
The Catholic ControversySt. Francis de Sales · The Chablais leaflets: his reply to Calvinism.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each question the test asks.
Settled teaching
Its center
Open question
Beyond teaching, not condemned
Condemned error
I
God and Being · What is, and whence it is.
Can reason know that God exists?
Natural theology
Fideism or agnosticism
Natural theology
How is God related to the world?
Creation from nothing
Pantheism or emanation
Creation from nothing
Is the world governed by purpose?
Providence and final causes
Chance and mechanism
Providence and final causes
How does creation speak of God?
A book of signs and vestiges
Natures studied in their own right
A book of signs and vestiges
II
Faith, Reason and Truth · How we know, and whom we trust.
Faith and reason: who has the last word?
Between
Rationalism
Fideism
Is truth objective?
Objective truth
Relativism and pragmatism
Objective truth
Who interprets revelation?
Living Tradition and Magisterium
Private judgment
Living Tradition and Magisterium
What is theology for?
A wisdom ordered to loving
A science ordered to knowing
A wisdom ordered to loving
Are the world's learning and arts a danger or a gift?
A gift to be baptized
A danger: Athens has nothing to do with Jerusalem
A gift to be baptized
III
The Human Person · Soul, body, freedom and the Fall.
Is there a spiritual soul?
Immortal spiritual soul
Mind is brain
Immortal spiritual soul
Is the body really you?
Body–soul unity
Dualism
Body–soul unity
Are you free?
Free will
Determinism
Free will
How fallen is human nature?
Basically good
Totally depraved
Basically good
Does nature desire God?
Natural desire for the vision of God
Pure nature
Natural desire for the vision of God
The body and its desires
Between
Contempt for the flesh
Desire as its own law
Marriage, sex and the body's meaning
Given by nature and grace
Given by nature and grace
Defined by consent and identity
What is suffering for?
A share in the Cross
An evil to be relieved
A share in the Cross
IV
The Moral Life · Law, virtue, conscience and the good.
Rules or character?
Morality of virtue and beatitude
Morality of obligation
Morality of virtue and beatitude
What is conscience?
Conscience bound to truth
Autonomous conscience
Conscience bound to truth
In doubtful cases
Laxism
Rigorism
Laxism
What is happiness?
Beatitude in God
Earthly flourishing
Beatitude in God
What is heaven's happiness, at its heart?
The will's love and enjoyment of God
The intellect's vision of God
The will's love and enjoyment of God
V
Grace and Salvation · How God saves, and whom.
How does grace move the will?
Molinist
Thomist (Bañezian)
Molinist
How are we made right with God?
Infused, transforming grace
Forensic imputation
Infused, transforming grace
Who can be saved?
Strict exclusivism
Strict exclusivism
Indifferentism
Hell and hope
Between
The many are lost
All will be saved
Would the Word have become flesh had Adam not sinned?
Christ was willed first (absolute primacy)
Christ came to redeem sinners
Christ was willed first (absolute primacy)
Where does your eye rest in Christ: His divinity or His humanity?
The man Jesus of Nazareth
The eternal Word made flesh
The man Jesus of Nazareth
VI
Church and Society · Authority, the state, wealth and the nation.
Church and state
Social kingship of Christ
Laicism
Social kingship of Christ
VII
Worship, Prayer and the Two Lungs · Liturgy, icons, the Spirit, and the See of Peter.
Icons and images
Veneration of images
Iconoclasm
Veneration of images
The way of prayer
Discursive meditation
Stillness and the Jesus Prayer
Discursive meditation
The office of Peter
Universal and immediate primacy
Conciliarism
Universal and immediate primacy
What do the sacraments do?
Efficacious ex opere operato
Signs only
Efficacious ex opere operato
When the Pope speaks
Every word binds
Resist and judge
Every word binds
Holy Orders and the Church's constitution
A clerical Church
A clerical Church
Reformable by the people
Should the faith take the forms of each culture it enters?
The Gospel in each people's own forms
One form everywhere
The Gospel in each people's own forms
Contemplation or action?
Action: the apostolate and the works of mercy
Action: the apostolate and the works of mercy
Contemplation: the one thing needful