AELW2:313
"In their schools the theologians enumerate other kinds of ignorance. The first kind is the one they call “invincible,”( see footnote) which was invented to excuse shortcomings, because it cannot be overcome or improved through any effort or perseverance. Thus Cicero’s lack of knowledge of God is invincible. When you read his treatises De natura deorum and De finibus bonorum et malorum, you realize that he has omitted nothing that mankind is able to attain by means of human reason and all its powers; yet he does not know what God’s will is and what His attitude is toward us. The reason for this lack of knowledge is that the ability to know God comes, not from our innate reason but from the Spirit of God, who enlightens our minds through the Word. Since Cicero lacked this, he had to struggle with a lack of knowledge that was invincible."
(footnote here)
“If ignorance be such that it is altogether involuntary, either because it is invincible, or because it pertains to that which a man is not obliged to know, then such ignorance completely excuses one from wrongdoing.” Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologica, I–II, Q. 76, Art. 3."
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