causa sine qua non

[kou-sah si-ne kwah nohn, kaw-zuh sahy-nee kwey non, kaw-zuh sin-ey kwah nohn]

noun

Latin.

1. an indispensable condition; requisite.

Word History and Origins

Origin of causa sine qua non¹

Literally, “a cause without which not”

Example Sentences

And in this sense his purpose was causa sine qua non, a cause without which any given event would not have happened, and therefore could not have been foreseen as certain.

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To say that new obedience is the "causa sine qua non—sine qua non contingit vita aeterna," Luther declared, was tantamount to treading Christ and His blood under our feet.

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But when his attention was called to this passage, he first eliminated the causa sine qua non and substituted ad vitam aeternam for ad salutem, and afterwards changed this phrase into ad veram pietatem.

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Concerning the word "faith," 1549, Flacius, for example had said that our effort to obey God might be called a "causa sine qua non, or something which serves salvation."

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Causa sine qua non works nothing, nor is it a constituent part but merely something without which the effect does not occur, or by which, if it were not present, the working cause would be hindered because it was not added.

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