However, St. Alphonsus confuses the issue by not positing faith in Christ as essential to an implicit baptism of desire - in the cited quote - but "perfect conversion to God by contrition or love of God above all things," something brought about by the "wind[flaminis or flamen]" of the impulse of the Holy Ghost, which is really talking about grace and its work of converting the heart/mind/soul of man.
Right, St. Alphonsus is merely talking about the charity aspect of sanctifying grace, and assumes as a
sine qua non for charity that there must be supernatural faith. Trent teaches clearly that no one has ever been justified without faith. St. Alphonsus himself, for instance, articulated that he believed that explicit faith in the Holy Trinity and Incarnation were necessary for salvation, although he IMO wrongly classified the "Rewarder God" theory as "probable". In the light of Vatican I's definition of the OUM, it must be regarded as NOT probable. It's also contrary to the Holy Office teaching, which I believe came out before he wrote that and which trumps St. Alphonsus' opinion, since the Holy Office clearly did not consider it probable. I surmise that St. Alphonsus was not acquainted with that particular ruling (which I'll have to dig up at some point here).
NB: When they use the term "probable," it does not mean probable in the sense that it's "probably" the true position. He actually felt that the other position was the right one and held it himself. Probable simply means more along the lines of "tenable", though I disagree that it was tenable for the reasons I cited.
Topic: Implicit BOD (Read 18852 times)