Autor: Ormerod, Neil

Buch: Creation, Grace, and Redemption

Titel: Creation, Grace, and Redemption

Stichwort: Schau Gottes, Gnade; B. Lonergan; Ausgang: Intellekt; Frage nach Gott; obediential potency (oboedientiale Potenz); ein Verlangen - 2 Ziele: proportional zur Natur - übernatürlich; Sublation; Cajetan (2 Verlangen)

Kurzinhalt: Still, while intellect reveals a potential for the beatific vision, the potential is "obediential"; that is, it lies beyond the proportionate means of the intellect ... Thus Lonergan allows for two ends, one proportionate, the other supernatural ...

Textausschnitt: 121b Finally, we consider the position of Lonergan on our "natural desire to see God."1 Lonergan begins by distinguishing between two meanings of the word "natural." First, it is used as distinct from supernatural, something that is beyond the powers of nature; second, when we speak of a natural desire, it is used in distinction from an elicited desire, which is an act of desiring some presenting object. A natural desire, then, pertains not to acts of elicited desire (e.g., in faith we may desire the beatific vision) but the potential orientation of the nature that is manifested in its acts. When Lonergan speaks of a natural desire to see God in God's essence, he uses the word "natural" in both senses. To speak of an elicited desire for the beatific vision as a natural desire would be to claim a natural appreciation of a supernatural good, the beatific vision, which would deny the supernaturality of that vision. Similarly, if one concludes from the fact of a natural desire to an exigence for the beatific vision, one again denies the supernatural quality of that vision. (Fs)

121c For Lonergan, the evidence for a natural desire is found in our human intellect, or what we have described as the human search for meaning, truth, and value. As soon as we know that there is a God-attainable through the natural light of intellect according to Vatican I (DS 3004)-we seek meaning, "What is God?" But only the beatific vision is a complete response to that question. Such questioning is natural; it reveals a human potency, the intellect, which is a radical tendency to "know everything about everything." Still, while intellect reveals a potential for the beatific vision, the potential is "obediential"; that is, it lies beyond the proportionate means of the intellect to achieve and can only be received "in obedience" as gift. The proportionate end of human knowledge is the universe of sensible being. Thus Lonergan allows for two ends, one proportionate, the other supernatural, arising from a single desire. These stand in relationship to each other since our "quest for complete knowledge can reach its term only when we know God per essentiam."2 Grace truly perfects and completes nature. Still, a natural perfection and beatitude are possible without the beatific vision. The language that Lonergan later would use to describe the relationship between the proportionate and supernatural ends would be "sublation": "what sublates goes beyond what is sublated, introduces something new and distinct, puts everything on a new basis, yet so far from interfering with the sublated or destroying it, on the contrary needs it, includes it, preserves all its proper features and properties, and carries them forward to a fuller realization within a richer context."3 (Fs)

122a Lonergan contrasts his position with that of Cajetan. For Cajetan, a natural desire must be fulfilled by natural means. Since there is no natural means for attaining the beatific vision, there can be no natural desire to see God. Next, Cajetan argues that there is a natural desire, but its object is to know God as the first cause, as existent, not for knowledge of God in his essence. Finally, he argues that there may be a natural elicited desire to see God, one dependent on divinely revealed effects. Thus, for Cajetan there are two desires, one natural, a potency of the nature but with a natural object; the other natural as elicited but with a supernatural object. Cajetan sought to protect the gratuity of grace but in doing so produced a human being with two desires and two ends "at the price of obscuring the relation between the natural desire to see God and its ultimate fulfillment in the beatific vision."4
122b Finally, in response to the position of de Lubac, Lonergan strongly asserts the possibility of God creating a world order where grace is not available:

all things are possible to God on condition that no internal contradiction is involved. But a world-order without grace does not involve an internal contradiction. Therefore a world-order without grace is possible to God and so concretely possible.5

122c While Lonergan accepts that it is fitting for rational creatures to have the beatific vision as their end, it is not necessary. On the other hand, he agrees with de Lubac that the notion of pure nature is hardly a central notion in the theology of grace and loses its significance once one abandons the conceptualist assumptions of Cajetan. (Fs)

123a As can be seen from the above discussion, the problem of working with the grace/nature distinction raises some very difficult questions that have exercised the minds of some of our greatest theologians. However, some simple insights might help the student approaching this for the first time. Some of the difficulties we create for ourselves arise with the language we use and the images behind that language. We often speak of the "religious" or "sacred" sphere in contrast to the "secular" sphere. But the image of contrasting spheres is not helpful. How do "spheres" relate to one another? Each is self-enclosed and complete. Try instead the image of "dimension," that is, the sacred dimension of things. Rather than splitting reality into disconnected spheres, the language of dimensions implies a unified reality with several distinct attributes or orders. A sacred dimension may be manifest at any time, in any place; a sacred sphere will be cut off and isolated from the nonsacred. Grace and the supernatural are not a distinct reality but a potential dimension of all reality, something Catholic theology recognizes in its approach to the sacraments. (Fs)