Una causaliltà auto-limitata : note su libero arbitrio e predestinazione secondo Gasparo Contarini

This article considers the issues of free will, predestination and justification, as explored by Gasparo Contarini in his private and public letters of the 1530s. Contarini had been developing a theory of the causal bounds since his youth at the university. Later, from 1530 he mingled these philosophical issues with religious problems. This double approach, which combines the authority of Aristotle with the texts of St. Paul, characterizes three famous letters which immediately circulated as public pamphlets, i.e., De libero arbitrio, De praedestinatione and De justificatione. Finally, the article considers Contarini's position during the Colloquy of Regensburg (1541), where the cardinal proposed a compromise theory of justification, which was closely connected with the aforesaid letters: indeed, he pointed at a middle way between Scylla and Charybdis, i.e., between Augustine and Pelagius, for which the salvation of the soul requires both divine grace and personal active participation. [Publisher's text]