On Nature and Grace: Part 2, The Problems of Extrinsicism

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.