The Finite Supernatural: Theological Perspectives

Charles Stinson

doi:10.1017/S003441250000682X

The Finite Supernatural: Theological Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008

Charles Stinson

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Charles Stinson: Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Dartmouth College

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Since the last half of the nineteenth century western Christian theologians have argued periodically about the supernatural, with liberals ordinarily denying the value of the concept and conservatives affirming it. The debate has usually turned around its function or disfunction within apologetics or the philosophy of religion. The anti-supernaturalists have claimed that the concept seriously inhibits the conversation between Christianity and contemporary culture. The pro-supernaturalists have replied that, whatever its current cultural status, the supernatural is absolutely essential to Christianity. And any attempt to abandon it for apologetic or philosophical reasons would falsify the very meaning of the Christian message itself. The debate commonly ends there with both sides fixed in disagreement.

Type: Research Article
Information: Religious Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , September 1973 , pp. 325 - 337

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S003441250000682X [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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^{page 325 note 1} There have been notable exceptions. The liberal Presbyterian John Oman found an honourable use for the word—as describing ‘absolute’ experience—in his The Natural and the Supernatural (Cambridge: 1931).Google Scholar More recently the sociologist of religion Peter Berger used supernatural' to mean the transcendent dimension of religious feeling. A Rumor of Angels (New York, Doubleday, 1969).Google Scholar The recently the sociologist of religion Peter Berger used supernatural' to mean the transcendent dimension of religious feeling. A Rumor of Angels (New York, Doubleday, 1969).Google Scholar The recently the sociologist of religion Peter Berger used supernatural' to mean the transcendent dimension of religious feeling. A Rumor of Angels (New York, Doubleday, 1969).Google Scholar The theologian Arthur Cohen takes the term over to denote the inward aspect of Judaism, its life of the spirit. The Natural and the Supernatural Jew (New York, Pantheon, 1963).Google Scholar

^{page 325 note 2} The controversy continues in German Protestant thought. Cf. Zasch, Gregor, Extra Nos: Untersuchung zu den Umstrittenen Begriffe des Übernatürlichen bei Evangelische Theologen der Gegenwart (Paderborn: 1970).Google Scholar

^{page 325 note 3} Aeschylus, , Fr. 227Google Scholar; Herodotus, , Hist., 2, 175Google Scholar; Aristotle, , De Coelo, 291a.Google Scholar

^{page 325 note 4} Seneca, , Dialogue 2 ad Serenum, 16.Google Scholar

^{page 326 note 1} Ambrose, , De Sacramentis, 4, 4 in PL 6: 441.Google Scholar

^{page 326 note 2} Augustine, , De Genesi ad Litteram, 9, 17 in PL 34: 406.Google Scholar

^{page 326 note 3} Cyril of Alexandria, , Commentary on John 1: 12 in PG 73: 153.Google Scholar

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^{page 326 note 5} Cassian, John, Collationes, 20, 4 in PL 49: 1153.Google Scholar The phrase ‘supernaturalis sapientia’ may, however, be a medieval misreading. ‘Naturalis sapientia’ is given in the critical edition, CSEL 13: 538.

^{page 326 note 6} Cf. Quarante-Neuf Lettres de Saint Isidore de Péluse, ed. by Aigrain, R. (Paris: 1911).Google Scholar The estimated date—the sixth century—is not certain.

^{page 326 note 7} Cf. Chevalier, Philippe, Dionysiaca, 2 vols. (Paris: Desclée, 1937).Google Scholar

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^{page 326 note 9} Abelard, , Theologia Scholarium, 1, 10 in PL 178: 1063.Google Scholar

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^{page 326 note 11} Lombard, Peter, Sententiarum Libri Quatuor, 2Google Scholar, Dist. 18, Q. 7.

^{page 326 note 12} Albert, , Summa Theologiae, 1Google Scholar, Tract 19, Q. 78.

^{page 326 note 13} Aquinas, , Summa Theologiae, 2–2Google Scholar, Q. 5, Art. 1 ad 1; ibid., 1, Q. 95, Art. 1; ibid., 1–2, Q. 110, Art. 2; ibid., 3, Q. 75, Art. 4; De Veritate, Q. 12, 7.

^{page 327 note 1} Bonaventura, , II Sententiarum, Dist. 1Google Scholar, Q. I, Art. I, Concl. 2 ad 1.

^{page 327 note 2} Duns Scotus, Opus Oxonienne, Prologue to I Sententiarum.

^{page 327 note 3} William of Ockham, III Sententiarum, Q. 8 B.

^{page 327 note 4} Biel, Gabriel, II Sententiarum, Dist. 28Google Scholar, Q. 1, Art. 3.

^{page 327 note 5} Eckhart, , Talks of Instruction, 13.Google Scholar

^{page 327 note 6} Ruysbroeck, , Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, 2, 3 and 43.Google Scholar

^{page 327 note 7} Luther, , Confession Concerning the Lord's Supper in Weimer Ausgabe, 26, p. 330.Google Scholar

^{page 327 note 8} Cranmer, Thomas, Defense of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament in Remains of Thomas Cranmer (Oxford: 1833), Vol. 2, p. 350.Google Scholar

^{page 327 note 9} Calvin, , Institutes, 2Google Scholar, 2, 12.

^{page 327 note 10} Hooker, Richard, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, 5Google Scholar, 56, 6.

^{page 327 note 11} Denzinger-Bannwort, , Enchiridion Symbolorum et Definitionum, 30th ed. revised by Rahner, Karl (Frieburg: Herder, 1954), secs. 1021 and 1023.Google Scholar

^{page 327 note 12} Friedrich, Schleiermacher, The Christian Faith, tr. by Mackintosh, H. R. and Stewart, J. S. (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1928), paragraphs 13, 88 and 89.Google Scholar

^{page 327 note 13} Tillich, Paul, Systematic Theology (University of Chicago Press, 1951–1963), Vol. 2, pp. 5 f.Google Scholar

^{page 327 note 14} Cf. Rudolf, Bultmann, Kerygma and Myth, tr. by Fuller, R. H (New York, Harper, 1961), pp. 5fGoogle Scholar; Niebuhr, Reinhold, The Nature and Destiny of Man (New York, Scribner, 1941), Vol. 2, pp. 268 fGoogle Scholar; Brunner, Emil, Man in Revolt, tr. by Wyon, Olive (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1947), p. 94Google Scholar The The Mediator, tr. by Olive, Wyon (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1947), p. 320.Google Scholar

^{page 328 note 1} Karl, Barth, Church Dogmatics, tr. by Bromiley, G. W. and Torrance, T. F. (Edinburgh: T & T. Clark, 1958), Vol. 4/2, pp. 84 f.Google Scholar

^{page 328 note 2} Scheeben, Matthias, The Mysteries of Christianity, tr. by Vollert, Cyril (Saint Louis: Herder, 1946)Google Scholar The Nature and Grace, tr. by Vollert, Cyril (Saint Louis: Herder, 1954).Google Scholar

^{page 328 note 3} Denzinger-Bannwort, , Enchiridion, secs. 1785 and 1786.Google Scholar

^{page 328 note 4} ibid., secs. 2036, 2075 and 2077.

^{page 328 note 5} Constituion De Ecclesia, sec. 61: grace as ‘supernatural life’.

^{page 328 note 6} Butler, Joseph, The Analogy of Religion, 1, 1, 3.Google Scholar

^{page 328 note 7} For an analytic criticism of both the natural-supernatural distinction and the concept of God as supernatural, cf. Passmore, John, Philosophical Reasoning (London: Gerald Duckworth, 1961), pp. 38–57.Google Scholar The is particularly severe on notions which he sees as ‘compromises’ between the natural and the supernatural.

^{page 328 note 8} Tillich, , op. cit., Vol. 2, pp. 5 f.Google Scholar

^{page 329 note 1} A recent account of the problem of miracles from the eighteenth century to the present is offered by Ernst, and Marie, Keller, Luise, Miracles in Dispute (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1969).Google Scholar

^{page 329 note 2} Spiegelberg, Herbert, ‘Supernaturalism or Naturalism: a Study in Meaning and Verification’ in Philosophy of Science 18 (1951), p. 359.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{page 329 note 3} The Christian Faith, Paragraph 14.

^{page 329 note 4} De Veritate, Q. 12, Art. 7.

^{page 329 note 5} Aquinas, , Summa Theologiae, 1–2Google Scholar, Q. 110, Art. 2. Supernatural grace, if given permantly to man, is ‘habitual’; it is a stable created ‘quality’, a new ‘form’ of being in man's ‘soul’. It inheres in his ‘nature’. But the ontological problem is not whether God specially causes or ‘posits’ such a quality in man. Rather, the problem is to differentiate the content of that quality from natural human experience. How does Adam's ‘original justice’ or a saint's ‘faith and love’ transcend the limits of human ‘nature’ ?

^{page 330 note 1} Molina, Luis, Liberi Arbitrii cum Gratiae Donis Concordia (Antwerp: 1955), Disp. 14, 3 and 4; pp. 45 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 330 note 2} Edwards, Jonathan, Sermon 27: A Divine and Supernatural Light in Works, Vol. 8, pp. 302, 295 and 301.Google Scholar

^{page 330 note 3} Cf. Bernard of Clairvaux on being ‘sensibly aware of grace’ in some moments and ‘not sensibly aware of it’ at other times. Sermons on the Song of Songs, 74, 2.

^{page 330 note 4} This distinction is widely accepted among modern Roman theologians and writers of manuals. Cf. Tanqueray, Adolphe, Synopsis Theologiae Dogmaticae (Paris and Rome: Desclée, 1937), Vol. 2Google Scholar, secs. 848 f. For Tanqueray, God is the ‘absolute supernatural’. In the category of the merely ‘relative supernatural’ is Jesus ‘hypostatic union’ with the Word. Here also are ‘grace’ and the ‘beatific vision’. Like God, these three are all supernatural ‘in substance’. Jesus' resurrection, however, is supernatural ‘in mode only’. It is ‘a supernatural fact’ and ‘a supernatural product’ in nature, but it is not ‘intrinsically supernatural’ in its ‘essence’. Vol. 1, sec. 517.

^{page 330 note 5} Suarez, Francisco, Commentarium in I Partem Divi Thomae Aquinatis, 2, 30.Google Scholar

^{page 331 note 1} Suarez, Francisco, Commentarium in I Partnm Divi Thomae Aquinatis, 2, 29.Google Scholar

^{page 331 note 2} Scheeben, Matthias, Nature and Grace, ut supra cit., pp. 157 f.Google Scholar

^{page 331 note 3} ibid. p. 201.

^{page 331 note 4} ibid. p. 159.

^{page 331 note 5} This theory has had its defenders, though, among them Pseudo-Denis and Peter Lombard who are that the ‘gift’ of ‘love’ given to man is the Holy Spirit Himself. De Coelesti Hierarchia, 4 and Sententiarum I, Dist. 17 and 3, Dist. 27. For Aquinas' critique of Lombard as ‘derogating’ from grace, cf. Summa Theologiae, 2–2, Q. 23, Art. 2.

^{page 331 note 6} de Ripalda, Juan, De Ente Supernaturali (Bordeaux and Lyons: 1945), 27, 2.Google Scholar

^{page 332 note 1} Bushnell, Horace, Nature and the Supernatural, ed. by Smith, H.Shelton in Library of Protestant Thought, Vol. 5 (Oxford University Press, 1965), p. 139.Google Scholar

^{page 332 note 2} Mascall, Eric, The Secularizing of Christianity (New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965), pp. 190 f.Google Scholar

^{page 332 note 3} Lonergan, Bernard, Insight (New York, Philosophical Library, 1956), p. 725 n.Google Scholar

^{page 332 note 4} ibid. p. 726.

^{page 333 note 1} Pseudo-Denis, , De Divinis Nominibus, 6Google Scholar The PG 3: 856 and 857.

^{page 333 note 2} Cf. Landgraf, Arthur M., Dogmengeschichte der Frühscholastik, Vol. 1/1, p. 243.Google Scholar The concept appears as ‘potentia obedientiae’ in Alexander of Hales, Summa, la, 21. It becomes ‘potentia obedientialis’ in Albert, Aquinas and Bonaventura. Cf. Gillon, L. B., ‘Aux Origines de la Puissance Obédientielle’ in Revue Thomiste 47 (1947), pp. 304–310.Google Scholar

^{page 333 note 3} The Christian Faith, Para. 13.

^{page 333 note 4} de Lubac, Henri, Surnaturel (Paris: Aubier, 1946), p. 486.Google Scholar

^{page 334 note 1} de Lubac, Henri, Surnaturel (Paris: Aubier, 1946), p. 489.Google Scholar

^{page 334 note 2} ibid. p. 387.

^{page 334 note 3} ibid. p. 489.

^{page 334 note 4} ibid. p. 394.

^{page 334 note 5} Humani Generis, sec. 42 (1950)Google Scholar; Denzinger-Bannwort, sec. 2318.

^{page 334 note 6} Karl, Rahner, Theological Investigations, tr. by Cornelius, Ernst (Baltimore: Helicon, 1967), Vol. 1, p. 312n.Google Scholar

^{page 334 note 7} Rahner, , op. cit. p. 315.Google Scholar

^{page 334 note 8} This approach antedates De Lubac and Rahner in Jesuit circles. Erich Pryzwara writes that ‘the supernatural exceeds any and every claim the creature can make’. Yet the supernatural ‘does not denote anything which transcends its [the creature's‘ own limits’. And ‘even the natural endowment [of the creature] appears ultimately as unmerited’. Polarity, tr. by Bouquet, A. C. (Oxford: 1935), pp. 79 and 80.Google Scholar

^{page 334 note 9} Cf. Auer, Johann, ‘Das Werk Karl Rabners’ in Theologische Revue 60 (1964), pp. 146–55Google Scholar; and Volk, Hermann, ‘Gnade und Person’ in Theologie in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Munich: 1957).Google Scholar

^{page 335 note 1} Berger, Peter, A Rumor of Angels, ut supra cit., p. 2.Google Scholar

^{page 335 note 2} Cf. Ruth, Benedict, General Anthropology, ed. Franz, Boas (New York, D.C. Heath, 1938), pp. 627 fGoogle Scholar; Chapple, E. D. and Coon, C. S., Principles of Anthropology (New York, Henry Holt, 1942), pp. 551 f.Google Scholar; Malinowski, Bronislaw, Magic, Science and Religion (Boston: Beacon, 1948), p. 15Google Scholar; Spiro, Melford E., Burmese Supernaturalism (Prentice-Hall, 1967), p. 3.Google Scholar

^{page 336 note 1} Oman, John, op. cit. p. 72.Google Scholar

^{page 336 note 2} de Chardin, Pierre Teilhard, The Divine Milieu (New York, Harper, 1960), p. 236.Google Scholar

^{page 336 note 3} de Chardin, Teilhard, The Future of Man (New York, Harper, 1964), p. 35.Google Scholar

^{page 336 note 4} de Chardin, Teilhard, Hymn to the Universe (New York, Harper, 1965), p. 95.Google Scholar

^{page 336 note 5} The Future of Man, p. 320.

^{page 336 note 6} Teilhard always appreciated the ‘apothéosis’ concept of Greek Fathers like Irenaeus and Gregory of Nyssa far more than he did the approach of the Latin Fathers. Cf. de Lubac, Henri, The Religion of Teilhard de Chardin (New York, Doubleday, 1968), p. 139.Google Scholar

^{page 337 note 1} For a survey of recent ‘personalist’ approaches to grace within Roman theology, approaches which tend to avoid or minimise the use of ‘supernatural’, cf. Colborn, Francis, ‘Theology of Grace: Trends and Directions’ in Theological Studies (31) 12 1970, pp. 892–711.Google Scholar

^{page 337 note 2} Tillich, , Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, p. 55Google Scholar; Vol. 3, p. 274. A popular presentation of the concept is found in his The New Being (New York, Scribner, 1955), Sermon 3, pp. 25 f.Google Scholar The is noteworthy that the ‘leftwing’ Bultmannian Fritz Buri also employs this expression—‘das Neue Sein’—to signify grace. Dogmatik als Selbstverständnis des Christlichen Glaubens (Bern and Tübingen, Verlag Paul Hempl and Kalsma Verlag, 1962), Vol. 2, pp. 440 and 441.Google Scholar

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