The question of freedom faced with the idea of destiny and the correlative definition of human acts and divine intervention have always been themes aimed at raising theoretical and doctrinal difficulties, feeding subtleties, triggering dramas and confronting aporias. These challenges traverse centuries of history of western religious thought from the Bible to the present day. It is the perceptible synthesis along this itinerary that we intend to listen to with this text.

Despite being one of the issues often cited by philologists to discuss topics within the Homeric poems, the fact is this is a complex and non-consensual issue. Discussions begin on the fact that (the) poet(s) do not always use the same formula or word to translate the idea we usually translate as «destiny». This essay aims to make a state of the art, drawing attention to what we consider to be a common methodological error: the forced adaptation of what Greeks understood by moira, e.g., and what in the XXI century is meant by Destiny.

Israel’s divine election in the Bible is a hermeneutic question. It is not compatible with a literalist understanding of the texts that express it. We privilege here its interpretation in the original cultural and religious contexts. The theology of the divine election of Israel – of a people – is inseparable from the history of biblical faith, which saw God revealing Himself to all peoples and loving them all, also seeing all humans as created by God. In that historical experience, it was understandable that the people who loved God so much would feel much loved by Him and as his “private property”; and was understandable that therefore it declared itself elected from among all peoples. This feeling was faith in action: God loves everyone, but the perception of love is particular. The most intense search and the deepest encounter of Israel with God led to the clear awareness of being preferred. But to be chosen by God was at the same time to choose God. To say ourselves elected is the other side of love received, as election is the other side of active love. To speak of the divine election of Israel did not mean that God would abandon other peoples, in an exclusivist favoritism; and did not suppose the non-election of them. The sense of particularity felt by Israel was that of becoming a mediation for the progression of other peoples in the search for the divine. In fact, Israel’s divine election has evolved in this direction historically and has culminated, in Jesus Christ, in the election of all peoples and persons as dearly loved by God.

This paper explores the place of the doctrine of predestination in John Calvin’s (1509-1564) theology. First, it is argued that the doctrine of predestination is subordinate to the focus of Calvin’s theology: the glory of God. Second, it explores how, in the reformer’s theology, the doctrine of God’s eternal election pacifically coexists with the free agency of the human being. Finally, it seeks to demonstrate that, for Calvin, without the doctrine of predestination, there is no possibility of achieving true Christian piety.

The theme of predestination became a crucial issue in theology, especially since the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. The Reformers sought to find support for their existential restlessness about the certainty of salvation: if it is God alone who determines the future of man, then it is of Him the ultimate responsibility for the salvation of some and the loss of others. As a theological concept, predestination aims to translate this divine predetermination which translates into the thesis of double predestination in Calvin and K. Barth. This essay aims to contribute to the clarification of this theme, which we will develop in three moments: 1) the problem of predestination in evangelical and Reformed theology; 2) the teaching doctrine of the Church; 3) a systematic approach to the theme of predestination and the criteria that allow us to pass from certainty to the hope of salvation.

The female religious communities are, in medieval Portugal, important centers of spirituality and living in accordance with the dictates of a religious Order that institutionalizes and guides the consciences and actions of the ladies who form them. Since the foundation of the Order of St. Clare in Portugal, since the middle of the thirteenth these women who chose to live in a cloistered space and poverty, really felt that were called by the grace of God, being fully aware of what was asked of them, thus deciding in complete freedom. If a full answer is not possible, several approaches are important for a first approach to this question.