Proceedings of the XXII World Congress of Philosophy

Volume 45, 2008

Philosophy of Religion

Holy Grace or Moral Behaviour?

To the faithful it is proper to draw the conclusion that in religion the appropriate way comes from the cultivation of virtue to the possibility of his endowment with grace; he should realize that the opposite way, from his endowment with grace with the view to make his way to virtue easier is not but an illusory way with a limited moral and religious meaning. From here follows that to God we cannot address but desires which passed the test of virtue. This is the rational Kantian position on grace, with regard to the rational finite being that is man. The existence, as an exception, of the unconditional grace to some human beings that represents the direct relation with the infinite being, do not entitle us to imagine that being unconditioned by the morality necessary to common beings, this kind of beings could ask for God any gift; since the grace as a divine gift becomes useless out of his relation with the divinity and his holiness, that represents for the finite being a moral model.