Whether Sin Has a Cause?
Objection 1: It would seem that sin has no cause. For sin has the
nature of evil, as stated above (Q. 71, A. 6). But evil has no cause,
as Dionysius says (Div. Nom. iv). Therefore sin has no cause.
Obj. 2: Further, a cause is that from which something follows of
necessity. Now that which is of necessity, seems to be no sin, for
every sin is voluntary. Therefore sin has no cause.
Obj. 3: Further, if sin has a cause, this cause is either good or
evil. It is not a good, because good produces nothing but good, for
"a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit" (Matt. 7:18). Likewise
neither can evil be the cause of sin, because the evil of punishment
is a sequel to sin, and the evil of guilt is the same as sin.
Therefore sin has no cause.
_On the contrary,_ Whatever is done has a cause, for, according to
Job 5:6, "nothing upon earth is done without a cause." But sin is
something done; since it a "word, deed, or desire contrary to the law
of God." Therefore sin has a cause.
_I answer that,_ A sin is an inordinate act. Accordingly, so far as
it is an act, it can have a direct cause, even as any other act; but,
so far as it is inordinate, it has a cause, in the same way as a
negation or privation can have a cause. Now two causes may be
assigned to a negation: in the first place, absence of the cause of
affirmation; i.e. the negation of the cause itself, is the cause of
the negation in itself; since the result of removing the cause is the
removal of the effect: thus the absence of the sun is the cause of
darkness. In the second place, the cause of an affirmation, of which
a negation is a sequel, is the accidental cause of the resulting
negation: thus fire by causing heat in virtue of its principal
tendency, consequently causes a privation of cold. The first of these
suffices to cause a simple negation. But, since the inordinateness of
sin and of every evil is not a simple negation, but the privation of
that which something ought naturally to have, such an inordinateness
must needs have an accidental efficient cause. For that which
naturally is and ought to be in a thing, is never lacking except on
account of some impeding cause. And accordingly we are wont to say
that evil, which consists in a certain privation, has a deficient
cause, or an accidental efficient cause. Now every accidental cause
is reducible to the direct cause. Since then sin, on the part of its
inordinateness, has an accidental efficient cause, and on the part of
the act, a direct efficient cause, it follows that the inordinateness
of sin is a result of the cause of the act. Accordingly then, the
will lacking the direction of the rule of reason and of the Divine
law, and intent on some mutable good, causes the act of sin directly,
and the inordinateness of the act, indirectly, and beside the
intention: for the lack of order in the act results from the lack of
direction in the will.
Reply Obj. 1: Sin signifies not only the privation of good, which
privation is its inordinateness, but also the act which is the
subject of that privation, which has the nature of evil: and how this
evil has a cause, has been explained.
Reply Obj. 2: If this definition is to be verified in all cases, it
must be understood as applying to a cause which is sufficient and not
impeded. For it happens that a thing is the sufficient cause of
something else, and that the effect does not follow of necessity, on
account of some supervening impediment: else it would follow that all
things happen of necessity, as is proved in _Metaph._ vi, text. 5.
Accordingly, though sin has a cause, it does not follow that this is
a necessary cause, since its effect can be impeded.
Reply Obj. 3: As stated above, the will in failing to apply the rule
of reason or of the Divine law, is the cause of sin. Now the fact of
not applying the rule of reason or of the Divine law, has not in
itself the nature of evil, whether of punishment or of guilt, before
it is applied to the act. Wherefore accordingly, evil is not the
cause of the first sin, but some good lacking some other good.
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