Actual grace is, in
CatholicThe word Catholic is derived from the Greek adjective , meaning "universal". In the context of Christian ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages. For some, the term "Catholic Church" refers to the church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, made up of the Latin Rite and the 22...
theologyThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
, a supernatural help of God --
Divine graceIn Christianity, grace is "unmerited favor" from God. Divine grace is a description of the character of God, which is displayed by God's gifts to humanity. Grace describes the means by which humans are granted salvation...
-- for salutary acts. It is contrasted with
sanctifying grace, which is a state of being that can be permanent, in that it consists only in a passing influence of God on the soul.
For example: if a person has, by grace, developed the will to follow the teaching of Jesus, "turn the other cheek", then if in the moment of an assault they choose to turn the other cheek, they may hope for the grace to actually turn the other cheek.
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Actual grace is, in
CatholicThe word Catholic is derived from the Greek adjective , meaning "universal". In the context of Christian ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages. For some, the term "Catholic Church" refers to the church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, made up of the Latin Rite and the 22...
theologyThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
, a supernatural help of God --
Divine graceIn Christianity, grace is "unmerited favor" from God. Divine grace is a description of the character of God, which is displayed by God's gifts to humanity. Grace describes the means by which humans are granted salvation...
-- for salutary acts. It is contrasted with
sanctifying grace, which is a state of being that can be permanent, in that it consists only in a passing influence of God on the soul.
For example: if a person has, by grace, developed the will to follow the teaching of Jesus, "turn the other cheek", then if in the moment of an assault they choose to turn the other cheek, they may hope for the grace to actually turn the other cheek. Hence the term, "actual" grace, because it is given for action, as opposed to altering a person's state (cp. Sanctifying Grace). However the distinction is not total since actual grace can lead to righteous action and good works. (Cp.
justification by worksIn Christian theology, justification is God's act of declaring or making a sinner righteous before God. The concept of justification occurs in many books of the Old and New Testaments....
.)
There is a
biotheologicalBiotheology is the synthetic application of understanding of biology to the understanding of God, synthesizing modern biology and traditional religious doctrines....
analogy between spiritual growth and grace and plant growth and sunlight, in that sunlight provides the power to actually photosynthesize and grace provides the power to actually do good deeds.
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