Luis de Molina SJ (29 September 1535 – 12 October 1600) was a Spanish Jesuit Catholic priest, jurist, economist and theologian renowned for his contributions to philosophy and economics within the framework of the second scholasticism.

[1] His pro-liberty perspectives influenced not only theological debates on free will but also extended to economic and political thought, making him an intellectual precursor to individual rights and market dynamics.

[5] As a result, he returned to his village of Cuenca to serve as a parish priest and write his major work, De iure et iustitia.

[5] In 1597, Pope Clement VIII asked Cardinal Michele Bonelli to gather theologians to verify the conformity of Molinism with the Catholic faith.

These doctrines, which opposed both traditional understanding of Augustinism and Thomism concerning the respective roles of free will and efficacious grace, and the teachings of Martin Luther and John Calvin, excited violent controversy in some quarters, especially on the part of the Dominican Order and of the Jansenists, and at last rendered it necessary for the Pope (Clement VIII) to intervene.

The Dominicans Diego Álvarez (c. 1550–1635), author of the De auxiliis divinae gratiae et humani arbitrii viribus,[8] and Tomás de Lemos (1540–1629) were given the responsibility of representing the Dominican Order in debates before Pope Clement VIII and Pope Paul V.[9] Although he is a convinced supporter of contractual consensualism,[10] Molina remains aware of the differences that still exist between civil law and canon law, but calls for their disappearance.

"[16] A full account of Molina's theology will be found in Gerhard Schneeman's Entstehung der thomistisch-molinistischen Controverse, published in the Appendices (Nos.