The Summa of Theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas volume 1
1. What is the book of life?
2. Whose life is the book?
3. Can someone be erased from the book of life?
Article 1 — What is the book of life?
Objection:
1. It appears that the book of life is not the same as predestination. Indeed, it is said in Ecclesiasticus (24, 23): “All this is the book of life. ” The Gloss explains: “That is to say, the New and the Old Testament. ” Now this is not predestination.
2. For S. Augustine, the book of life is “a certain divine force which will cause each person’s good or bad works to be remembered.” But a divine force does not seem to relate to predestination, but rather to the attribute of power.
3. Predestination is opposed by reprobation. So if the book of life were predestination, there would be a book of death just as there is a book of life.
On the contrary , on these words of the Psalm (69, 29): “Let them be erased from the book of life”, the Gloss explains: “This book is the knowledge of God, by which he has predestined to life those whom 'he knew in advance. ”
Answer:
We speak of a book of life in God by metaphor, in the resemblance of human affairs. It is the custom of men to write down in a book those who are chosen for some employment, such as soldiers, or advisers who, therefore, were formerly “conscript fathers”. Now, we know from the above that all the predestined were chosen by God to possess eternal life. It is the inscription of these predestined ones which is called the book of life.
On the other hand, we say metaphorically that something is inscribed in a man's mind when he holds it firmly in his memory, according to the words of Proverbs (3.1): “My son, do not forget not my teachings, and let your heart keep my precepts. ” And a little further: “ Engrave them on the tablets of your heart. ” Because on material books we also write to relieve our memory. Therefore the knowledge of God, by which he holds firmly within himself that he has predestined some to eternal life, is called the book of life. For just as the writing of a book is the sign of what one should do, so the knowledge of God is in him a kind of sign with regard to those whom he is to lead to eternal life. This is what these words of the Apostle mean (2 Tim 2:19): “The solid foundations laid by God stand firm, marked with the seal of these words: “The Lord knows his own.” ”
Solutions:
1. We can speak of a book of life in two different senses. By this we can designate the inscription of those who are elected with a view to living, and this is how we speak at this moment of the book of life. But we can also call the book of life the inscription of what leads to life, and this again in a double sense, whether it concerns things to be done, and in this respect the Old and New Testaments. are called the book of life; or we designate things already done, and then it is this divine force capable of one day bringing back to the memory of each person all his actions, which is called the book of life. This is how we also call a military book the one in which the conscripts appear, the one which deals with the military art, or the one which relates the exploits of the soldiers.
2. This gives the answer to the second objection.
3. It is not customary to register those who are eliminated, but those who are elected. There is therefore not a book of death corresponding to reprobation, as the book of life corresponds to predestination.
4 . The book of life differs logically from predestination, since it implies its knowledge, as seen by the alleged text of the Gloss.
Article 2 — Whose life is the book?
Objections:
1 . It seems that the book of life is not only about the glory of the predestined.
The book of life is knowledge of life. But it is through his own life that God knows all other life. Therefore the book of life mainly refers to divine life, and not only to the life of the predestined.
2 . As the life of glory comes from God, so the life of nature. Therefore, if we call the book of life the knowledge of the life of glory, the knowledge of the life of nature must also be called the book of life.
3 . Some are chosen for grace and are not chosen for glory, as these words of the Lord prove in St. John (6, 71): “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve, and one of you is a demon? ” But the book of life is the inscription of divine election, as we have just seen. So it also relates to the life of grace.
In the opposite sense , the book of life is a knowledge of predestination, as we have just seen. Now predestination does not concern the life of grace except as it leads to glory; for they are not predestined who have grace and lack glory. The book of life therefore only relates to glory.
Answer :
As has just been said, the book of life involves a kind of inscription or knowledge of those who are chosen for the sake of life. Now, if someone is chosen, it is for an advantage that does not belong to them by nature. Furthermore, what we choose him for has a reason for purpose, and for example we do not choose, we do not enroll a soldier so that he bears arms, but so that he fights, which is the task that 'we expect from an army. Now, the end which surpasses our nature is the glorious life, as we have shown above. Therefore, strictly speaking, the book of life concerns the life of glory.
Solutions:
1. Divine life, even as glorious life, is natural to God. With regard to him there is therefore no question of election, nor consequently of a book of life. For we do not say that anyone is elected to have sensible knowledge, or anything that results from nature.
2 . This gives the answer to the second objection, for, with regard to natural life, there is neither election nor book of life.
3 . The life of grace does not have an end, but a means to an end. Therefore, we do not say that anyone is elected to the life of grace, except insofar as the life of grace is ordered to glory. For this reason, those who have grace and do not achieve glory are not called absolutely elect, but in a certain respect. Likewise, we will not say that they are registered purely and simply in the book of life, but only in some way, according to whether in the decree and in the thought of God it is marked that they will have a certain ordination to eternal life, in participating in grace.
Article 3 — Can someone be erased from the book of life?
Objections:
1. It seems that no one is erased from the book of life, for St. Augustine writes: “The foreknowledge of God, which cannot be mistaken, is the book of life. ” But nothing can be removed from the foreknowledge of God, nor likewise from his predestination. So no one can be erased from the book of life.
2 . What exists in something exists there according to the mode of that thing. But the book of life is an eternal and immutable thing. Therefore everything that is in him is there not temporally, but immutably and in an indelible manner.
3 . Erasing is opposed to inscribing; but no one can be written again in the book of life: therefore no one can be erased from it.
On the contrary , we read in Psalm (69, 29): “Let them be erased from the book of life. "
Answer :
Some say: No one can truly be erased from the book of life, but one can be erased according to the opinion of men. It is frequent in fact that in Scripture a thing is said to happen as soon as it becomes known. According to this way of speaking, some are said to be inscribed in the book of life because men think that they appear there, noting their present righteousness. But when it appears, in this world or the next, that they have fallen from this righteousness, they are said to be erased from it. This is how the Gloss explains this radiation, regarding the words of the Psalm: “Let them be erased from the book of life. ”
But because not being blotted out of the book of life is given as a reward of the righteous, in accordance with Revelation (3, 5): “The victor will be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life”; as on the other hand what is promised to the saints is not found only in the opinion of men: for this reason, we can say that being erased or not being erased from the book of life must refer not only to human opinion, but also reality. The book of life is in fact the inscription of those who are ordained to eternal life, and this ordination proceeds from two factors: divine predestination, and such ordination is never in default, or grace. For whoever has grace is thereby worthy of eternal life. But this last ordination is sometimes faulted; for there are some who are ordained by the grace that is in them to receive eternal life, but they fall from it through mortal sin. Therefore those who are ordained to possess eternal life by divine predestination are written purely and simply in the book of life; for they are inscribed there as having eternal life in itself. And these are never erased from the book of life. But those who are ordained to receive eternal life, not by divine predestination, but only by grace, are said to be inscribed in the book of life not purely and simply, but in a certain way; for they are inscribed there as having to receive eternal life not in itself, but in its cause. And these can be erased from the book of life. Not that this radiation has anything to do with the knowledge of God, as if God first foresaw something and then ignored it; but it relates to the thing known; for God knows that such a man is first destined to eternal life and then is no longer ordained there, having lost grace.
Solutions:
1 . Being erased from the book of life does not relate, as we have just said, to foreknowledge, as if there were some mutability in God; but to planned things, which are changeable.
2. Although all things are in God immutably, yet they are changeable in themselves, and to this the blotting out of the book of life refers.
3 . In the sense in which we grant that a man can be erased from the book of life, he can also be inscribed there again, either as to the opinion of men, or because, recovering grace, he is again ordained by she has eternal life. And this also is included in divine knowledge, but not again.