Continued in: Next
points of inquiry:
(1) What is the book of life?
(2) Of what life is it the book?
(3) Whether anyone can be blotted out of the book of life?
FIRST ARTICLE [I, Q. 24, Art. 1]
Whether the Book of Life Is the Same As Predestination?
Objection 1: It seems that the book of life is not the same thing as predestination. For it is said, "All things are the book of life" (Ecclus. 4:32)--i.e. the Old and New Testament according to a gloss. This, however, is not predestination. Therefore the book of life is not predestination.
Obj. 2: Further, Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xx, 14) that "the book of life is a certain divine energy, by which it happens that to each one his good or evil works are recalled to memory." But divine energy belongs seemingly, not to predestination, but rather to divine power. Therefore the book of life is not the same thing as predestination.
Obj. 3: Further, reprobation is opposed to predestination. So, if the book of life were the same as predestination, there should also be a book of death, as there is a book of life.
_On the contrary,_ It is said in a gloss upon Ps. 68:29, "Let them be blotted out of the book of the living," "This book is the knowledge of God, by which He hath predestined to life those whom He foreknew."
_I answer that,_ The book of life is in God taken in a metaphorical sense, according to a comparison with human affairs. For it is usual among men that they who are chosen for any office should be inscribed in a book; as, for instance, soldiers, or counsellors, who formerly were called "conscript" fathers. Now it is clear from the preceding (Q. 23, A. 4) that all the predestined are chosen by God to possess eternal life. This conscription, therefore, of the predestined is called the book of life. A