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.
