CatholicTheology.info

Choose a topic from Part 2A:

• Man's Last End
• Human Acts
• The Passions
• Habits in General
• Virtues
• Vices and Sins
  • 71. Vice and Sin
  • 72. The Distinction of Sin
  • 73. The Standing of Sins Toward One Another
  • 74. The Subject of Sin
  • 75. The Cause of Sin
  • 76. Ignorance as a Cause of Sin
  • 77. The Sensitive Appetites as the Cause of Sin
  • 78. Malice as the Cause of Sin
  • 79. External Causes of Sin
  • 80. The Devil as the Cause of Sin
  • 81. Human Beings as the Cause of Sin
  • 82. The Essence of Original Sin
  • 83. The Subject of Original Sin
  • 84. One Sin as the Cause of Another
  • 85. The Effects of Sin
  • 86. The Stain of Sin
  • 87. The Debt of Punishment for Sin
  • 88. Venial and Mortal Sin
  • 89. Venial Sin
• Law
• Grace

76. Ignorance as a Cause of Sin

1. The active cause of sin is the will under the light andjudgment of intellect; that is, the cause of sin is the reason.Now, ignorance may deprive reason of guiding knowledge that itought to have, and therefore may bear upon the committing of sin.Thus, in some sense, ignorance may be the cause of sin.

2. Ignorance is itself a sin when it is a man's ownfault and pertains to things that he is under obligation toknow.

3. Ignorance which is not one's own fault, and whichdeprives one of knowledge which would have prevented a sinful act,excuses from the guilt of sin.

4. Ignorance that is not directly willed tends to diminishthe guilt of sin that comes as a result of it.

"Those who love God are always happy, because their whole happiness is to fulfill, even in adversity, the will of God."
St Alphonsus de Liguori

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"The one thing necessary which Jesus spoke of to Martha and Mary consists in hearing the word of God and living by it."
R. Garrigou-Lagrange, OP

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"For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers if we live without grace and the love of God?"
Thomas á Kempis

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