MikeL,
I hope you'll take the time to read a post that I wrote in one of the Open Forum threads. (I can't remember the title, but I addressed the post to you.)
As for your historical claims: they are mistaken. Predestination was discussed quite often by medieval philosophers and theologians. For instance, Thomas Bradwardine wrote a book an enormous (yet untranslated) volume in which he defends the doctrine of predestination against "Pelagians" in the 14th centuries. Scholars are interested in this work because it got Bradwardine promoted to being an archbishop of Canterbury, and it is of great historical interest who these "Pelagians" are. (The suspicion is that Ockham is one of them!
)
Aquinas also defended the doctrine of predestination in several places, including his biblical commentaries and the Summa Theologica. See the first part, question 23: "Of Predestination". In that question he defends eight theses:
1) Men are predestined by God. (Article 1)
2) Predestination does not place anything in the predestined. (Article 2)
3) God does reprobate men. (Article 3)
4) The predestined are chosen by God. (Article 4)
5) The Foreknowledge of merits is not the cause of predestination. (Article 5)
6) Predestination is certain. (Article 6)
7) The number of predestined individuals is certain and unchangeable. (Article 7)
8) Predestination can be furthered by the prayers of the saints. (Article 8)
In this question, Aquinas argues that God chooses some men and doesn't choose others in a way that doesn't depend on anything they or anyone else does; furthermore, the number of elect is immutable, and no one can add to it or take away from it. Nevertheless, he contends, prayer and other "means of grace" are still to be used (e.g., preaching).
In fact, predestination was a major philosophical and theological theme of the medieval period. The position that God predestined people was so widespread, in fact, that just about every major scholastic writer had something to say about it. In my office alone, I have works in which predestination is discussed by Abelard, Ockham, Aquinas, and Bradwardine, and they just scratch the surface of medievals who have discussed the doctrine. (NOTE: they were not all in agreement with Aquinas's position. Bradwardine and Aquinas were effectively Calvinists. Ockham not so much, and Abelard--from what I know of him--is still unclear to me.) I say all of this just to point out that the world wasn't turned upside down by the reformers. Instead, they were involved in ongoing scholastic debates, and they were taking a side endorsed by earlier important, orthodox theologians on this doctrine.
Enough of that, though. I appreciate the fact that you are participating in the forum.
Cheers,
John P.
