Divine predestination does not absolve individuals of moral responsibility

Evidence

Habitus, in contrast to this political model of ethics, is not something one accepts or rejects, it is part of what one essentially is and must do. (The ethics of passionate necessity encompasses tragedy.) Oedipus puts out his own eyes not because his conscience or his god considers that he deserves to be punished for failing to be responsible—or because he thinks he does—but because (as he says) he cannot bear the thought of having to look his father and his mother in the eyes when he joins them beyond the grave, or to see his children, “begotten as they were begotten.” He acts as he does necessarily, out of the passion that is his habitus. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 468 (#complicates, via linked claim)

The nature of this pain (punishment, repentance, discipline) is different from the one endured by Oedipus because it is rooted in the idea of responsibility, the idea that someone can be held accountable and blamable for a particular outcome. It implies that the acceptance of guilt and painful expiation opens the way back to a kind of just restoration. For Oedipus such a return does not exist. The accumulation of events is not reversible. The future is not made, but encountered and suffered. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 482 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Islamic predestination was read as denying human moral responsibility; Justification is free while sanctification requires effort — Chuck Missler, The Kingdom, Power and Glory: The…, 1201; Believing salvation guarantees future reward frees Christians from present moral responsibility — Chuck Missler, The Kingdom, Power and Glory: The…, 136 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Virtue as embodied necessity is not a chosen or rejectable stance #complicates (0.76) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 468
• Secular responsibility presupposes reversible guilt that tragic fate lacks #complicates (0.74) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 482