This will be my last post reflecting upon Jordan Hillebert's reading of Henri de Lubac in his book Henri de Lubac and the Drama of Human Existence and how de Lubac navigated between the views Hillebert calls intrinsicism and extrinsicism.

Again, as I've described over the last three posts, what struck me about Hillebert's reflections on de Lubac is how closely they mirrored my own theological development and where I've landed on some key issues. One of those issues is how I think about the atonement.

Many of the chapters in The Book of Love simply share the rich insights of biblical scholars. All I do is make those insights accessible to a general audience. But there are a few chapters that are more creative and represent independent reflections of my own. (Not that there is anything new under the sun.) One of those is my discussion of the atonement in the chapter "Loved from the Foundation of the World."

As regular readers know, one of the things I’ve been working on in this space is how classical theism contradicts popular understandings of penal substitutionary atonement. Specifically, according to classical theism, God does not undergo change. Nor does God experience psychological conflict between competing impulses within himself. Nor does God suffer under any necessity (like the necessity of a sacrifice in order to forgive). And finally, God does not experience time as a serial temporal sequence. There is no “before” and “after” in the life of God. 

That is a lot for accounts of penal substitutionary atonement to overcome, particularly an account of the atonement that:

1. Posits a posture toward humanity that changes from wrath to mercy.
2. Describes a conflict within God between His justice/holiness and mercy/love.
3. Demands that God can only forgive through the shedding of blood.
4. Describes the atonement as an event in the life of God, where prior wrath is followed by mercy.

In short, most accounts of penal substitutionary atonement simply cannot be true. If God doesn't experience change, then nothing we witness on the cross of Jesus effects or reflects a change in God's affections toward us. Nor does the cross mark a "before" and "after" in God's relation to the world. Neither does the cross help God "reconcile" within himself the competing demands of his love and mercy with his justice and holiness. And lastly, God didn't and doesn't need a sacrifice, of any kind, to forgive us. What classical theism insists upon, therefore, is that what we witness on the cross of Christ is how God has always and eternally felt about us. As I describe it in The Book of Love, the cross is a theophany of God's love that has loved us, per the chapter title, from the foundation of the world.

Now, this vision of the cross, especially in the way it rebuts penal substitutionary atonement, tips me toward intrinsicism. We have been loved from eternity. God didn't need to "do anything" to forgive us. Our sin wasn't a problem God had to solve.

All of that sounds very liberal and progressive. The theophany of the cross communicates unconditional affirmation. And it does! As Paul very clearly says, Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. God forgives us while we were his enemies. Jesus looks upon his murderers and prays, "Father, forgive them."

And yet, as I continue in The Book of Love, the theophany of the cross is a bloody, gruesome spectacle. If God simply wanted to communicate unconditional affirmation, he could have done that by sending a Cosmic Valentine, writing "I Love You" in the clouds. Instead, we are confronted with a tortured corpse. Why is this hideous display necessary for what should have been a big warm hug?

The answer is the same one de Lubac articulated over against intrinsicist views of humanity. Humans are loved, but the reality of sin intrudes. Consequently, the cross is both mercy and indictment, compassion and crisis. We have been loved from the foundation of the world, but our journey toward God can only pass through the cross. The theophany of the cross is grievous because sin is grievous, and we are called to metanoia as we behold the tortured body of Jesus.

In short, as I recently described in this space, the cross is a bivalent symbol, a Stop and a Go. The Go is the communication of unconditional love, mercy, grace, and pardon. But if this Go were all that was communicated on the cross, it would collapse into what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called "cheap grace," the gospel reduced to a message of affirmational niceness. But the cross also communicates a Stop, a message of prophetic indictment, where our sin is exposed and confronted and where we face the evangelical demand of conversion. Conversely, if the cross is reduced to the Stop, its message becomes a harsh, judgmental "sinners in the hands of an angry God" sermon.

Following de Lubac, the cross stands between intrinsicism and extrinsicism. All Go and no Stop becomes the cheap grace of intrinsicism, the gospel as a message of affirmation incapable of confronting sin. All Stop and no Go becomes the guilt-inducing damnation of extrinsicism, the gospel as a message of wrathful condemnation. In short, the vision of the atonement I try to articulate in The Book of Love attempts, as de Lubac did, to navigate between two false visions of the atonement—one progressive and the other conservative—to articulate something more complex, more paradoxical, and, I would argue, more truthful.

As I described in the last post, I resonate with Jordan Hillebert's reading of Henri de Lubac in his book Henri de Lubac and the Drama of Human Existence because it confirms how I have attempted to navigate between the views Hillebert calls intrinsicism and extrinsicism.

For several years now I've been calling myself a "post-progressive" Christian. I know many people dislike the constant proliferation of labels in online Christian discourse. But I've found this label helpful in locating myself within the Christian landscape. If you're a new reader and aren't sure what "post-progressive Christian" means, it simply means that I formerly identified as a "progressive Christian," with all that implies by way of beliefs and politics, but have since become disillusioned with progressive Christianity. Not in the sense of a wholesale rejection, but because of growing concerns about many of progressive Christianity's reductionisms, blind spots, hypocrisies, heresies, and ailments. My stance, then, is not anti-progressive but one that has moved through progressivism, retaining much within that worldview to arrive at something different. Post-progressive. Or perhaps we could simply say after-progressive.

I bring this up because much of what de Lubac attempted in navigating between intrinsicism and extrinsicism is exactly the same navigation I'm trying to capture with the label "post-progressive."

Very much like de Lubac, I rejected the extrinsicism I observed on the Christian right, the pessimistic conviction that humanity is totally depraved and devoid of grace. I gravitated toward and embraced the generous and inclusive humanism found on the progressive side of Christianity. Over against "original sin" there is "original blessing," the conviction that creation is good and that humanity is very good. I also appreciate the conviction that, within the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, human experience carries as much weight as--if not more weight than--Scripture and Tradition.

And yet, as I traveled with the progressive tribe, I began to notice the problems with the intrinsicism that I've described throughout this series. Specifically, an already-and-always graced humanity has no need of a Savior. Sin, judgment, and atonement are set aside. Christ comes to us as a guru of enlightenment rather than as the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. And because of the reductive and totalizing intrinsicism found in many progressive spaces, large portions of the Bible are dismissed as "problematic."

Thus, still very much like de Lubac, I began to push back against the intrinsicism espoused by progressive Christianity. But not in order to embrace its opposite, the pessimistic extrinsicism of conservative Christianity. Following de Lubac, the goal is to navigate between these two distortions. We must reject the pessimistic view of humanity found within evangelical spaces. Human beings are good and touched by grace. But at the same time we must reject the affirmational humanism found in many progressive Christian spaces that refuses to speak of sin and sidelines the atoning work of Christ. 

This is the de Lubacian balance I'm trying to capture with the label "post-progressive Christianity."

We've taken a slow walk through Jordan Hillebert's reading of Henri de Lubac in his book Henri de Lubac and the Drama of Human Existence. The reason I have done so is because I deeply resonate with de Lubac's navigation between intrinsicism and extrinsicism. In many ways, de Lubac solves many of the issues and tensions I have wrestled with over the years. So when I read Hillebert's book, I said, "Yes, here it is. This is the way." In the next few posts I'd like to share why.

To start, de Lubac's "natural desire for the supernatural," which is a "longing born of lack," sits behind much of Hunting Magic Eels and The Shape of Joy.

First, in Hunting Magic Eels I move away from extrinsicism to connect nature with grace. Because we exist, we are connected to God. Everything is spiritual. Nature is tethered to and oriented toward God. Thus, de Lubac's "natural desire for the supernatural" describes and becomes a resource for re-enchantment. Nature is touched, infused, and filled with grace.

And yet, as with de Lubac, our relation to grace is a "longing born of lack." In writing Hunting Magic Eels I was alert to the temptations of a totalizing intrinsicism, from both Christianity and neopaganism. On the Christian side, as I've described in this series, you see things within liberal and progressive Christian spaces that set aside the economy of salvation for a gnostic vision of affirmational enlightenment. From the neopagan direction, you see a pantheistic sacralization and consecration of nature. All we have to do is recognize nature's always-already blessedness.

But I resist intrinsicism in both Hunting Magic Eels and The Shape of Joy. I call our longing born of lack "the Ache" in Hunting Magic Eels. Human flourishing flounders when God goes missing from our lives. And in The Shape of Joy I describe how our happiness is ordered toward a transcendent, supernatural finality. We become sick when we turn toward ourselves for our beatitude. At the core of our being is an Augustinian restlessness that can only find rest in God. 

The point I'm making here is that de Lubac's navigation between intrinsicism and extrinsicism maps onto my own investigations concerning nature and grace. With de Lubac, against extrinsicism I want to embrace nature as graced, enchanted, and intrinsically ordered to a supernatural finality. But also with de Lubac, I push against intrinsicist views of nature, from both Christian and neopagan perspectives, by describing our desire for the supernatural as a longing born of lack. 

One more post before I turn to some of my own reflections, continuing to share Jordan Hillebert's reading of Henri de Lubac in his book Henri de Lubac and the Drama of Human Existence.

To recap, Hillebert argues that de Lubac attempted to navigate between intrinsicism and extrinsicism. De Lubac's initial concern in writing Surnaturel was to reject the reigning extrinsicist views concerning nature and grace found in "two-tiered" Thomism. De Lubac did this by positing an organic connection between nature and grace through the "natural desire for the supernatural." But in his writings after Surnaturel, Hillebert argues that de Lubac took care to clarify that his views regarding the "natural desire for the supernatural" did not imply intrinsicism. De Lubac did so for two reasons, one ontological and the other evangelical. Regarding the ontological, our desire for God is a "longing born of lack." Human nature cannot, on its own, actualize its supernatural telos. And beyond this ontological insufficiency there is the evangelical demand for metanoia, the need for conversion as we move toward union with God.

In short, de Lubac articulated a balance between intrinsicism and extrinsicism.

Another way to describe this balance, following Hillebert, is through de Lubac's appropriation of the patristic contrast between image and likeness in Genesis 1:

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."

Most readers of Genesis 1 tend to treat "image" and "likeness" in the creation account as synonyms. But some of the church fathers, like Irenaeus, Origen, and Clement of Alexandria, saw a contrast here. In this view, image and likeness are not the same. Broadly speaking, among the early fathers who worked with this contrast, image referred to the created capacities conferred upon human nature, ontological gifts like rationality that made humans human. Likeness referred to what humans are called to become. In the Fall of Genesis 3, the image was retained—humans remained human—but the likeness was damaged and lost. Thus, while we possess the image of God as humans, our likeness to God has become an eschatological task. We possess the image of God but have yet to become like God. Theosis, in this view, is achieved when likeness is fully restored.

De Lubac saw something generative in the patristic contrast between image and likeness. As described by Hillebert, de Lubac articulated what he called a "mysticism of likeness." De Lubac describes it this way: "'God, who is completely present everywhere, does not, however, dwell in everyone.' In other words, the divine image is inalienable in every human being, but union with God is 'a union of likeness.'" As Hillebert points out, de Lubac is deploying here, in his account of mysticism, "a particular reading of the biblical creation narrative in which God created human beings in his image (εἰκών) in view of ultimately leading them to his likeness (ὁμοίωσις)."

This contrast introduces an eschatological and evangelical element into the ontological account. As Hillebert observes, while the fathers differed in how they contrasted image and likeness, they agreed that "the likeness can only be attained within the economy of God's salvific dealings with humanity." De Lubac picks up this point. He writes, "The divine resemblance is something to be realized through the action of the Holy Spirit, by man's dependence on the redeeming Incarnation."

Stepping back, we can see how de Lubac's use of the patristic contrast between image and likeness allowed him to position his views between intrinsicism and extrinsicism. Against extrinsicism, humans possess the image of God. Human nature is graced and connected to the supernatural. And yet, because of sin, human nature has lost its likeness to God. The economy of salvation is concerned with restoring this likeness. Thus, whereas image is ontological and creational, likeness is evangelical and eschatological. Nature is intrinsically graced (image), but the achievement of likeness demands repentance and conversion.

"the love of Hym was so strong whych He hath to our soule"

In Chapter 20 of Julian's Revelations, she turns back to a consideration of Christ's pains. We're still here with the eighth  showing, that of Christ's suffering and dying, which goes from Chapters 16-21. 

At the end of Chapter 20 Julian describes Christ's joy in undergoing the Passion.

And I, beholdyng al this be His grace, saw that the love of Hym was so strong whych He hath to our soule, that wilfully He ches it with gret desyr and myldly He suffrid it with wel payeyng. For the soule that beholdyth it thus, whan it is touchid be grace, he shal veryly se that the peynys of Crists passion passen al peynys; that is to sey, which peynys shal be turnyd into everlestyng passyng joyes by the vertue of Crists passion.

Translation:

And I, beholding all this by His grace, saw that the love of Him was so strong which He has toward our soul, that willingly He chose it with great desire, and meekly He suffered it with much satisfaction.

For the soul that beholds it thus, when it is touched by grace, it shall truly see that the pains of Christ's Passion surpass all pains; that is to say, which pains shall be turned into everlasting surpassing joys by the virtue of Christ's Passion.

The love of Christ was "so strong" "toward our soul" that he "willingly chose" the sufferings of the cross "with great desire" and "much satisfaction." 

We're put in mind here of Hebrews 12:2 which describes Jesus this way, "who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross." Hebrews doesn't explain why or how Christ felt joy when he suffered on the cross. Julian, though, fills in the critical piece. Christ felt joy in his suffering because "the love of Him was so strong which He has toward our soul, that willingly He chose it with great desire, and meekly He suffered it with much satisfaction." 

This will be a theme that Julian will return to:

Love was the reason.

In the last post we described Jordan Hillebert's reading of Henri de Lubac in his book Henri de Lubac and the Drama of Human Existence. Specifically, Hillebert argues that de Lubac did not endorse intrinsicism, the notion that nature is already and wholly graced. Rather, de Lubac attempted to navigate between intrinsicism and extrinsicism.

According to de Lubac, the integral connection between nature and grace is our natural desire for a supernatural end. This tips de Lubac toward intrinsicism. But de Lubac resists collapsing grace wholly into nature by describing how our natural desire for God is a longing born of lack. Human nature cannot, all on its own, actualize its supernatural finality. Our desire for God is born out of an ontological insufficiency. Our longing for God exists as a capacity for receptivity rather than potency.

But there is more to de Lubac's case against a totalizing intrinsicism. The issue isn't just about capacity and incapacity. There is also the question of our conscious posture toward God. Specifically, as the human person makes their way toward God, toward their supernatural end, there comes a moment in this journey where the person must confront their sin and God's call upon their life. There comes a moment of faith, conversion, confession, trust, and repentance. Otherwise, we stall, and sin keeps us from moving forward. For de Lubac, this is our confrontation with and passage through the cross. He writes, "it is the same for Humanity, taken as a whole, as for each individual...[We] cannot reach completion without...a turning around of the whole being, a mysterious passage through death, a revival and a recasting that are nothing other than the evangelical metanoia." 

When grace meets nature, writes de Lubac, there is a clash of realities: "Between sinful human nature and divine grace we have not only a dissimilarity, a heterogeneity between two orders of being, an infinite distance that man alone cannot bridge. There is an antagonism, violent conflict." He continues, "the call of grace is no longer an invitation to a simple 'elevation,'...in a more radical fashion it is a summons to a 'total upheaval,' to a 'conversion' (of the 'heart,' i.e., of all one's being)." We're reminded here of the evangelical message from Bonhoeffer's Cost of Discipleship: "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."

The point here is that intrinsicism is resisted in two different ways, ontologically and evangelically. Ontologically, human nature cannot actualize, all on its own, its supernatural end. And evangelically, to reach its supernatural end, human nature must face and undergo a conversion. Reaching God requires metanoia, a decisive turning toward God.

As I mentioned at the end of the last post, in attempting to push back upon the extrinsicism he saw at work in "two-tiered" Thomism, de Lubac has generally been viewed as an apostle of intrinsicism, the view that nature is "always already" graced.

As we've noted in this series, such a view dispenses with soteriological understandings of grace and, consequently, much of the biblical narrative. The entire economy of salvation is set aside.

A related concern here is how intrinsicism seems to undermine our view of grace as a gratuitous, super-added gift. Simply put, if nature already has grace, then grace is no longer a gift that comes to nature as, to borrow from Tolkien, a eucatastrophic surprise. Relatedly, if nature is already graced, then nature has a power unto itself that it can actualize toward its supernatural end. Such a striving would marginalize our need for God's super-added help. We cannot get to God under our own power.

Insofar as de Lubac has been taken to be supportive of intrinsicism, these are the sorts of concerns that have been raised about his "natural desire for the supernatural." And in fact, as described by Jordan Hillebert, many modern readers of de Lubac read him as arguing for intrinsicism. But as Jordan Hillebert argues in his book Henri de Lubac and the Drama of Human Existence, this very influential reading of de Lubac isn't accurate.

According to Hillebert, and I find his analysis convincing, while de Lubac resisted extrinsicist accounts of grace, he did not fold grace wholly into nature. As Hillebert describes it, de Lubac articulated a "paradoxical" account that navigated between the reductive accounts of extrinsicism on the one side and intrinsicism on the other.

At the heart of this paradoxical account regarding the relationship between nature and grace is de Lubac's description of how the "natural desire for the supernatural" is a "longing born of lack." That is, our desire for God is born out of our ontological insufficiency. Human nature cannot, on its own, actualize its desire for its supernatural end. This tracks with how Thomas Aquinas described our longing for God: "The nature that can attain perfect good, although it needs help from without in order to attain it, is of more noble condition than a nature which cannot attain perfect good, but attains some imperfect good, although it need no help from without in order to attain it." That is to say, human nature cannot, on its own, realize its perfect good in God. Due to this ontological lack, human nature needs outside assistance, "help from without," in order for us to attain union with God. But this lack, this need for assistance, doesn't mean human nature is defective. While it needs outside help to achieve its good, human nature is "more noble" than animal natures that can achieve their natural ends without supernatural aid, simply because human destiny in God infinitely surpasses any purely earthly good. But the key point to observe here in Thomas is the notion that humans cannot achieve their perfect end without the participation of grace.

Again, Hillebert points out that, for de Lubac, our desire for God is "a longing born of lack," a restlessness for our supernatural end that we cannot satisfy on our own. As de Lubac observes, "The fact that the nature of spiritual being...is not conceived as an order destined to close in finally upon itself, but [is] in a sense open to an inevitably supernatural end, does not mean that it already has in itself, or as a part of its basis, the smallest positively supernatural element. It does not mean that this nature, 'as nature, and by nature' is elevated." The reason for this, again, is the ontological insufficiency of nature to realize a supernatural end. As de Lubac puts it, between nature and grace "the distance is as great, the difference is as radical, as that between non-being and being." While human nature is marked by the supernatural, this mark is, in its essence, a capacity for receptivity within nature rather than a power or potency. Nature is naturally ordered to and open to the supernatural, but it has to await the gift of grace.

In short, while we have a natural desire for the supernatural, it is a longing born of lack.

To recap, in his book Henri de Lubac and the Drama of Human Existence Jordan Hillebert describes two problematic views concerning the relationship between nature and grace. On the one side is extrinsicism, the view of a graceless nature, a nature devoid of grace. Extrinsicism is generally found in conservative Christian spaces and sits behind pessimistic views of “totally depraved” human nature. On the other side is intrinsicism, the view that nature is “always already” graced. Intrinsicism tends to be found in liberal and progressive Christian spaces, which promote a more optimistic view of human nature, a view so affirmational that we no longer need saving.

One way I have described the contrast between extrinsicism and intrinsicism is how creation theology and soteriology can be weighted against each other. According to extrinsicism, the fall caused creation to lose all contact with grace. Grace, therefore, has to come wholly from soteriology, a gift completely exterior to, outside of, beyond, and extrinsic from the fallen created order. Intrinsicism, by contrast, shifts grace toward creation. Existence simply is grace, wholly and completely. Creation does not need saving. Thus, soteriology becomes unnecessary. The work of Jesus, in this view, is simply to communicate to nature its graced and saved existence. Salvation becomes a form of enlightenment, a realization of one’s intrinsically graced existence.

When Henri de Lubac wrote Surnaturel, he was pushing back against the extrinsicism found within the reigning “two-tiered” Thomism in Catholic theological circles. At the time, this was a debate about how best to read Thomas Aquinas regarding the possibility of pure nature. It is a debate that continues to this day, largely because Thomas was not wholly consistent across his voluminous writings. For our purposes, however, we can set this debate aside. Our concern is how to think about the relationship between nature and grace, rather than how best to read the Angelic Doctor.

As I have described, in Surnaturel de Lubac rejected extrinsicism by arguing for an intrinsic and organic connection between nature and grace. The connection was our “natural desire for the supernatural.” 

The tricky part in this formulation is the notion of "natural desire." An extrinsicist view of our desire for God would hold that such a desire must be supernaturally implanted into nature from the outside. An example would be the Calvinist doctrine of election, in which God implants a desire for Himself into our hearts, wills, and minds. Thus, the desire for God is treated as a supernatural, super-added gift, something inserted into nature.

De Lubac, by contrast, says that the desire for God is natural. The desire for God is not implanted or inserted into nature at some later point, downstream of our coming into existence. Our desire for God is a constitutive part of our nature, an intrinsic endowment of our natural existence. Simply put, our desire for God does not have to be super-added to our nature, because it is already there.

As Jordan Hillebert points out, according to de Lubac, human nature, being spirit, simply is the desire for God. Because humans are spiritual beings, our desires are teleologically ordered toward a supernatural finality. This is simply what it means to exist as a spiritual being. The desire for God is, therefore, our nature. As Augustine put it, our hearts are restless until they rest in God. Or, as Thomas put it, “Final and perfect happiness can consist in nothing else than the vision of the Divine Essence.”

As you can see, de Lubac’s “natural desire for the supernatural” pushes back against the view that nature is wholly severed from relation to God. A longing for God is, rather, simply what it means to be human. Our desires are directed and ordered toward God. Our ultimate happiness and fulfillment can only be found in a supernatural end and finality.

But there are controversies here. As I noted above, a Calvinist would reject de Lubac’s view, arguing that the supernatural desire for God must be extrinsically implanted in fallen human nature. For my part, I reject the Calvinist view. I side with de Lubac, Augustine, and Thomas: humans have a natural longing for God, and as spiritual beings, human happiness can only be found in God. Human flourishing is ordered toward a supernatural end.

But the more pressing controversies concern the temptations we have observed in intrinsicist perspectives, the view that nature is “always already” graced. As Jordan Hillebert describes, de Lubac has often been regarded as a pioneer of modern intrinsicist theological developments. And because of this, de Lubac has been sharply criticized for allegedly undermining the view of grace as a gratuitous gift rather than as a “natural endowment.” For my purposes, these questions are the more pressing criticisms of de Lubac, so we will turn to them next.

In his book Henri de Lubac and the Drama of Human Existence, Jordan Hillebert describes Henri de Lubac's vision of the relation between nature and grace as an attempt to "avoid both the Scylla of extrinsicism and the Charybdis of intrinsicism."

In the last post, we described the problems with extrinsicism, the view of a "graceless nature." First, a vision of "pure nature" suggests that humans can flourish without God. Second, if nature lacks an intrinsic relation to grace, the supernatural arrives as a "kind of violence," negating or overriding, rather than perfecting, nature. Lastly, visions of "graceless nature" inevitably lead to dark and pessimistic views of human persons, people who are totally depraved.

But seeing nature as "always and already" graced has its own problems, a view Hillebert calls intrinsicism.

What do we mean by nature as "always and already" graced? Intrinsicism, says Hillebert, is the view that "human nature always already participates in the supernatural that fulfills it." In such a view, the "supernatural perfection of human being is no longer seen as coming 'from without' (exothen) but is rather envisaged as the culmination of a movement intrinsic to the (always already graced) dynamism of human existence."

Simply put, if nature is "always and already graced," then nature doesn't need saving "from the outside," from something beyond itself. In contrast to the pessimistic anthropologies associated with extrinsicism, intrinsicist views of human nature are optimistic. These are the views you tend to find in liberal and progressive Christian spaces, a baptized humanism that doesn't need salvation because human beings are "always and already graced" simply by being human. Crudely put, humans are saved just because they exist.

The problems with intrinsicism should be obvious. If everything is always and already graced, if everyone is already saved, then the entire economy of salvation history is set aside, and with it pretty much the whole of the biblical narrative. For Christianity is, as you know, a salvation religion. We're an Exodus and Easter people. The gospel of intrinsicism, by contrast, is a form of enlightenment, a gnostic religion, a journey of discovering and recognizing your always and already graced and Christ-like nature.

Intrinsicism is why many liberal and progressive Christians abandon the gospel for the affirmational, exchanging salvation for gnosticism. The drama of salvation is replaced with a psychology of awakening. The cross becomes unnecessary. To say nothing about the cosmic vindication of justice. What remains is a therapeutic spirituality that celebrates human potential while ignoring the uncomfortable truth that humanity is in need of saving.

And beyond the moral there is also the ontological predicament of finitude, death and our drift into non-existence. Waxing romantic about finite existence being "always and already graced" will come as a shock to those who experience the desolations of death and decay. Such rosy optimism is quickly dispelled by a walk through an emergency room, a cancer ward, or senior care facility. There is much in nature and the created order that is blessed and good—I like sunsets as much as anyone—but I also await the eucatastrophe.

"in whych God assignyth no blame"

As I said last Friday, we're staying in Chapter 19 of Julian's Revelations this week because I want to draw attention to Julian's first description of her distinctive anthropology. 

Recall from last week Julian is tempted to look away from the cross toward heaven. But Julian resists this temptation by choosing Jesus as her heaven. She then concludes Chapter 19 with a reflection upon this temptation, the struggle between her flesh (which wanted to escape the suffering of cross) and her soul (which chose Jesus, who is on the cross, as her heaven). And in describing this relation between her flesh and soul Julian begins to unfold her antropological vision:

Thus was I lerid to chose Jesus to my Hevyn, whome I saw only in payne at that tyme. Me lekyd no other Hevyn than Jesus, which shal be my blisse whan I come there, and this hath ever be a comfort to me, that I chase Jesus to my Hevyn be His grace in al this tyme of passion and sorow. And that hat be a lernyng to me that I should evermor done so - chesyn only Jesus to my Hevyn in wele and wo. And thow I as a wretch had repentid me - I sayd aforn if I had wiste what peyne it had be, me had be loth to have prayed - here saw I sothly that it was grutching and darning of the flesh without assent of the soule, in whych God assignyth no blame. Repenting and wilful choys be two contrarys which I felte both in one at that tyme, and tho be two parties, that one outward, that other inward. The outeward party is our dedely fleshede which is now in peyne and wo, and shal be in this life, whereof I felt mech in this tyme, and that party was that repentid. The inward party is an high blisfull life, which is al in pece and in love, and this was more privily felte, and this party is in which, mightyly, wysly, and wilfully, I chase Jesus to my Hevyn. And in this I saw sothly that the inward party is master and soverayn to the outeward, and not charging ne takyng hede to the will of that, but al the entent and will is sett endlesly to be onyd into our Lord Jesus. That the outeward part should draw the inward to assent was not shewid to me, but that the inward drawith the outeward by grace and bothe shal be onyd in blisse without end be the vertue of Criste - this was shewid. 

Translation:

Thus I learned to choose Jesus as my Heaven, whom I saw only in pain at that time. I liked no other Heaven than Jesus, which shall be my bliss when I come there, and this has ever been a comfort to me, that I chose Jesus to be my Heaven by his grace in all this time of passion and sorrow.

And that is something I learned, that I should evermore do so — choosing only Jesus to be my Heaven in well and woe.

And though I, as a wretch, had repented me — I said before, if I had known what pain it had been, I would have been loath to have prayed — here saw I truly that it was grumbling and dreading of the flesh without assent of the soul, in which God assigns no blame.

Repenting and willing choice are two contraries, which I felt both in one at that time, and they are two parties, the one outward, the other inward.

The outward party is our deadly flesh, which is now in pain and woe, and shall be in this life, whereof I felt much in this time, and that party was that which repented.

The inward party is a high, blissful life, which is all in peace and in love, and this was more privately felt, and this party is in which, mightily, wisely, and willingly, I chose Jesus to be my Heaven.

And in this I saw truly that the inward party is master and sovereign to the outward, and not charging nor taking heed to the will of that, but all the intent and will is set endlessly to be united into our Lord Jesus.

That the outward part should draw the inward to assent was not shown to me, but that the inward draws the outward by grace, and both shall be united in bliss without end by the virtue of Christ — this was shown.

Going forward, Julian will have much more to say about the "inward part" of the soul and its relation to the "outward part" of the flesh. In this life, as Julian points out, these parts come into conflict. But through the grace of God the inward part will, one day, draw the outward part into a blissful union. There will come a harmony.

But the thing I want to draw your attention to is Julian's observation that God "assigns no blame" to the soul. This seems to be because the soul does not "assent" to what the flesh is feeling and doing. The soul exists apart from the flesh in a "high, blissful life, which is all in peace and in love." 

Julian seems to be echoing Paul's description of the conflict between spirit and flesh in Romans 7. 

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave under sin. For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. 

Notice a couple of things here. Because Paul doesn’t inwardly assent to his sinful actions then Paul isn’t the one sinning. He says this clearly: “Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it.” Got that? I sin, but I am not the one doing it. Julian seems to adopt this idea. Because the innermost self does not consent to sin the soul is blameless before God.

About this blamelessness Julian will have much more to say.

Having introduced Henri de Lubac and his account of the natural desire for the supernatural, let's turn to Jordan Hillebert's analysis in his book Henri de Lubac and the Drama of Human Existence. Specifically, we'll examine how Hillebert understands de Lubac as navigating between two competing accounts of the relationship between nature and grace, positions he labels "extrinsicism" and "intrinsicism."

In this post, we'll focus on extrinsicism.

Recall from the previous post that de Lubac wrote Surnaturel to challenge an influential interpretation of Thomas Aquinas. This was the "two-tiered" view of nature and grace. On the one hand was "pure nature." According to this view, nature is separate and autonomous from grace and the supernatural. Nature possesses its own telos, finality, and end, culminating in a form of wholly natural flourishing that is complete in itself and distinct from participation in the divine life.

Grace, by contrast, introduces a second and higher telos, one that culminates in union with God. Grace, in this conception, is exterior to nature, coming to nature "from the outside." Grace is extrinsic to nature.

In short, within this "two-tiered" vision humanity has two possible ends, one natural and the other supernatural.

So, what is the problem with extrinsicism?

One problem, as described in the last post, is that this "two-tiered" view provides a theological rationale for secularism, materialism, and atheism. If human nature possesses its own complete and self-sufficient end, then human flourishing does not require God. To be sure, this natural end is not the highest or fullest possibility for humanity when compared to our supernatural destiny. But it is a genuine vision of flourishing. God might improve or elevate human existence, but human nature could still achieve a proper fulfillment apart from God. For de Lubac, this vision of a Godless flourishing would naturally create an indifference, even a repulsion, toward our supernatural vocation and end. De Lubac observes:

The unbeliever [finds] it easy to withdraw into his indifference in the very name of what theology was telling him: if my very nature as a man truly has its end in itself, what should oblige or even arouse me to scrutinize history in the quest for some other vocation perhaps to be found there? Why should I listen to a church which bears a message having no relation to the aspirations of my nature? Should not the intrusion of some outside supernatural even be rejected as a kind of violence?

That last comment about the supernatural arriving as a "kind of violence" is a point often made by David Bentley Hart. If the supernatural is radically "other" than nature, then grace does not perfect nature but overrides, negates, or replaces it. Alternatively, grace and nature are fused into an ontological hybrid, transforming the human person into a kind of Frankenstein. Hart's vision of "metaphysical monism" seeks to describe the intrinsic compatibility of nature and grace, along with nature's receptivity to grace. De Lubac's account of the natural desire for the supernatural is an attempt to achieve something similar, overcoming the opposition between nature and grace by showing their organic and intrinsic relation.

A second concern is how the notion of "pure nature" encourages pessimistic anthropologies. If nature is described as devoid of grace, as wholly separated from God, this inevitably results in a diminished view of human nature, one that emphasizes deficiency, incapacity, and corruption. When grace is conceived as radically exterior to nature, nature comes to be viewed through the lens of total depravity.

The logic is straightforward. If God is absent from nature, then nature can only be understood in terms of lack and privation. And the more sharply grace and nature are separated, the darker the picture of human nature. What begins as a distinction between nature and grace culminates in a pessimistic view of human persons.

De Lubac's doctrine of the natural desire for the supernatural was an attempt to overcome this extrinsicist separation of nature and grace. Nature is, according to de Lubac, already graced and tethered to the supernatural. An intrinsic and organic bond unites nature and grace. Human flourishing, therefore, cannot be found apart from God. Nor is God an external addition to an otherwise complete humanity. We can only become our fullest selves by arriving at our supernatural finality in God.

And yet, viewing nature as already and intrinsically graced creates it own temptations. We'll turn to those next. 

I've written about Henri de Lubac and his thinking on nature and grace, the relation of the natural to the supernatural, before. But I've been reading Jordan Hillebert's book Henri de Lubac and the Drama of Human Existence and have found his treatment of de Lubac particularly illuminating. I especially like the categories he uses to frame the debates. So, this series is devoted to sharing some of Hillebert's insights.

But first, we need to introduce Henri de Lubac to readers who do not know him and explain why his thoughts on nature and grace are important. You might think this series isn't for you, but it is.

Henri de Lubac (1896-1991), a French Jesuit priest, was one of the most influential Catholic theologians of the twentieth century. De Lubac was a leading figure in what came to be known as ressourcement, a movement that called the church, among other things, to reconnect with the Church Fathers. This theological renewal played a significant role in the documents produced by Vatican II.

One of the things de Lubac is most famous for, and also most controversial, was his 1946 book Surnaturel. This was the work where he first articulated his famous treatment of the relationship between nature and grace.

In Surnaturel, de Lubac pushed back against influential strands of Thomistic thought regarding what is called "pure nature." According to this view, rooted in an Aristotelian framework, human beings possess a natural end proportionate to their created capacities and could, at least in theory, achieve a complete natural fulfillment apart from any supernatural destiny. Above this natural fulfillment stood a second and higher end, the beatific vision, in which human beings are granted direct communion with God through grace.

De Lubac rejected this "two-tiered" account of the human person. His concerns were twofold. First, by sealing off nature from supernature, the advocates of "pure nature" were creating theological warrant for secularism, even atheism. Simply put, if the natural world can exist "all on its own," independent and autonomous from God, people can reach a state of fulfillment in their "natural end" separate from God. Christianity risked, in this view, becoming disconnected from the fundamental longings of the human heart. Second, according to the "two-tiered" account of nature and grace, grace is wholly exterior, alien, and other than nature. Grace is "super-added" onto nature, creating a sort of ontological hybrid, a metaphysical Frankenstein made of two "parts."

In Surnaturel, de Lubac attempted to bridge the gap between nature and grace, viewing nature as already participating in the supernatural. De Lubac rejected "pure nature." The bridge de Lubac created between nature and supernature was his famous claim that humans possess a natural desire for the supernatural. This is Augustine's "Our hearts are restless until they rest in You." The restlessness of the human heart points beyond the natural order toward a fulfillment that can only be found in communion with God. Grace, in this view, is not something added onto an otherwise complete human nature. Nor does grace destroy or replace nature. Rather, grace brings human nature to the fulfillment for which it was created. Humanity's supernatural destiny is the completion of a desire woven into the very fabric of human existence.

De Lubac's uniting of nature and grace has been an inspiration for contemporary theologians, from John Milbank to David Bentley Hart. Yet there are a host of issues and controversies surrounding de Lubac's claim that there is "a natural desire for the supernatural." We'll turn to those topics in the posts to come.

Having described yesterday the significant role of dreams in Scripture, my mind naturally turned to the ubiquity of visions in the Biblical narrative. In fact, visions are more prominent than dreams. 

Dreams in Scripture tend to occur while a person is asleep and they frequently involve guidance or warning. Visions, by contrast, tend to be associated with prophetic commissioning, heavenly revelation, or apocalyptic disclosure. Many of Israel's greatest prophets—Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah—are fundamentally visionaries. And the Apocalypse of John—the book of Revelation—is one entire vision. 

Here's a selective survey of significant visions in the Bible:

Abram's Covenant Vision (Genesis 15:1)

"After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision..."

Moses and the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:2-4)

"The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush."

Samuel's Call (1 Samuel 3:1)

"And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision."

Isaiah's Throne Vision (Isaiah 6:1)

"I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up..."

Ezekiel's Chariot-Throne, Valley of Dry Bones, and Future Temple Visions (Ezekiel 1:1; 37:1; 40:2)

"The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God."

"The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD..."

"In visions of God he brought me to the land of Israel..."

Daniel's Visions (Daniel 7:1; 13; 8:1)

"Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed..."

"I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man..."

"I, Daniel, saw the vision."

The Transfiguration (Matthew 17:9)

"Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead."

Ananias's Vision (Acts 9:10)

"The Lord said to him in a vision, 'Ananias.'"

Cornelius's and Peter's Visions (Acts 10:3; 10-11)

"About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God..."

"He fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending..."

Paul's Macedonian Call (Acts 16:9)

"A vision appeared to Paul in the night..."

Paul's Vision in Jerusalem (Acts 22:17-18)

"I fell into a trance and saw him saying to me..."

John's Apocalypse (Revelation 1:10-12)

"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day..."

Again, in my ongoing project to "Keep Christianity Weird" I share all this with no other purpose than to unsettle us. 

I was reading through Job and reached Chapter 33, a part of Elihu's response to Job. Here it is: 

For God does speak—now one way, now another—
though no one perceives it.
In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falls on people
as they slumber in their beds,
he may speak in their ears
and terrify them with warnings,
to turn them from wrongdoing
and keep them from pride,
to preserve them from the pit,
their lives from perishing by the sword.

Though this is Elihu speaking, and not Job, my take is that Elihu's description of God communicating in dreams is to be taken by the reader as truthful and accurate. Mostly because the whole of Scripture gives evidence of this. God communicates in dreams. Here's a survey:

Jacob's Ladder (Genesis 28:12)
"And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth..."

Joseph's Dreams (Genesis 37:5; 37:9)
"Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more."
"Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers..."

Pharaoh's Dreams (Genesis 41:1; 41:5)
"Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile..."
"And he fell asleep and dreamed a second time..."

Gideon's Dream (Judges 7:13)
"Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian..."

Solomon's Dream (1 Kings 3:5)
"At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night..."

Nebuchadnezzar's Dreams (Daniel 2:1; 4:10)
"Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled..."
"The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these..."

Daniel's Dream (Daniel 7:1)
"Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed..."

Joseph's Dream (Matthew 1:20)
"Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying..."

The Wise Men's Dream (Matthew 2:12)
"And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod..."

Joseph's Flight to and return from Egypt Dreams (Matthew 2:13; 2:19-20; 2:22)
"Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt...'"
"Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying..."
"Being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee."

Pilate's Wife's Dream (Matthew 27:19)
"Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream."

There's also the fulfillment of Joel 2 at Pentecost: "Your old men will dream dreams."

I don't have much to say about all this other than to note the contrast with the Biblical world and our own. To be sure, many people continue to experience their dreams as communicating portents, warnings, and meanings. But my sense, in the church spaces I've inhabited, claiming that a dream is a communication from God is not common, and if shared, treated with suspicion. Perhaps even viewed as pathological. 

Of course, should we make space for dreams as a legitimate form of divine communication, an apparatus for discernment needs to be put in place. For there is a distinction between dreams being welcomed versus made authoritative and binding upon a collective group. Scripture gives warnings about false and deceitful dreams:

Jeremiah 23:25-28: "I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, 'I have dreamed, I have dreamed!'...Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the LORD."

Deuteronomy 13:1-3: "If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, 'Let us go after other gods' ... you shall not listen." 

Zechariah 10:2:  "The dreamers tell false dreams and give empty consolation."  

So, discernment is vital. 

Anyway, it's all something to ponder. My interest in all this is my continued quest to "Keep Christianity Weird." My sense is that one of the places where we bump into the disenchantment of the modern mind is how we view God communicating through dreams. I'm more interested in our default skepticism on this front than about the dreams themselves.