Molinism – the doctrine of middle knowledge
Luis de Molina (1535-1600) was a Spanish Jesuit theologian who attempted to reconcile the apparently contradictory doctrines of divine sovereignty and human free will by postulating that God has a ‘middle knowledge’ (scientia media).
Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) had taught that God has two kinds of knowledge. The first is a knowledge of the actual: a knowledge, arising out of God’s absolute decree, of what exists in the past, present and future. The second is a knowledge of the possible: of what could exist in the past, present and future, but does not, because God has not decreed it.…