The Immaculate World: Predestination and Passibility in Contemporary Scotism

Abstract

AbstractThe Franciscan theologian Duns Scotus (ca.1266–1308) taught the puzzling doctrine that had Adam not sinned, the totus Christus would have been immediately glorified. While the Scotist commentarial tradition developed this idea in several surprising ways, most twentieth‐century Scotists rejected it. This article uses a modern philosophy of counterfactual statements to evaluate the interpretive claims of F. X. Pancheri and Juniper Carol, two prominent twentieth‐century Scotists, and presents a new understanding of the traditional Scotist notion that had Adam not sinned, the Word would have become incarnate in impassible flesh.