God's Use of Instrumental Causality

How Does God Use Instruments?

All of these gifts of Fr. Hugon—his supernatural holiness, his deep scholarship, his profound understanding of the mind of St. Thomas, and his aptitude for clear explanations—are on display in Instrumental Causality.   

- Forward, Fr. Paul Robinson

The contributions of this author to both theology and philosophy cannot be overstated. Instrumental Causality could only have been composed by a master Thomist, because it singles out a particular idea of the Angelic Doctor and then proceeds to find that idea in St. Thomas’s explanations of the supernatural order.

One of the main purposes of the book, is a greater understanding of the Catholic faith. In the tradition of Catholic theology, it has always been the practice to manifest its compatibility with reason. The procedure begins with two fixed points: on the one hand, there is the data of revelation, provided by the Magisterium, Tradition, and Scripture; on the other hand, there is the data of reality. The one is known by the authority of the Church, the other is known by reason, especially in its philosophical exercise.

Fr. Hugon wants to make use of theological explanations as the best means to the end of the contemplation of God. He wants to use the most solid bridge available between reason and faith, he finds it in St. Thomas’s Summa, and he explains a particular aspect of that bridge in this work. The bridge that is being highlighted in this book is that of instrumental causality. 

Fr. Hugon gets to the bottom of the way that instruments work.  Fr. Hugon believes that, once we have understood from reality what an instrument is and how it works—and understood it deeply by means of philosophical reflection—we can then apply the notion of ‘instrument’ to certain mysteries of our faith. In doing so, we are making an analogy between instrument as we know it and instrument as found in the supernatural order. Insofar as our analogy is successful, it enlightens our mind as to how God works in the supernatural order, and so also as to who God is in Himself.

After explaining the notion of instrument Fr. Hugon spends the rest of the book applying that notion analogically to these mysteries of the supernatural order:

• Scriptural inspiration wherein God inspires a sacred author to write and so uses that author as an instrument

• Our Lord’s humanity, God’s supreme instrument, which He used as a physical cause of miracles during Our Lord’s life, and uses as a physical cause of every grace that is given to souls, up to the present day

• The sacraments and priests which God uses as physical instruments for the conferral of grace

• Miracles,  which God sometimes works without using any creature as an instrument, but which He often likes to work using His saints as instruments, in their actions or words, or even inanimate creatures, such as the water of Lourdes

• The Blessed Virgin Mary who, as we know, is the Mediatrix of all graces, and, as such, might very well be used by God as a physical, instrumental cause of those graces, and not merely a moral cause who simply asks for those graces

This way that theology bears its supernatural fruit. It is meant to lead to a contemplation of God Himself. It can only do so by drawing analogies between what we know of the created order through reason and what we know of the supernatural order through revelation. In this book, Fr. Hugon is providing us with an ample and beautiful subject for theological reflection—God’s love for using instruments in the supernatural order. 

This book belongs in the home of every aspiring theologian, philosopher, and ardent Catholic looking to grow his Faith through deeper contemplation of the eternal mysteries of God and  Causality.

Clothbound hardback, 168 pp.