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SurnaturelFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Surnaturel is a book written by the Roman-Catholic theologian
Henri de Lubac. It stands among his most famousand controversial
works.
In this book he traces the historical meaning of the word
'supernatural' and notes a shift in implication. Up to theHigh
Middle Ages, the essential contrast was drawn between 'natural' and
'moral'. After that, the contrast was seenbetween 'natural and
supernatural'. De Lubac is trying here to establish the correct
understanding of Aquinas on thissubject.
Contents
1 Context
2 Argument
3 Impact
4 Editions
5 References
Context
De Lubac began work on the ideas which would eventually appear
as Surnaturel in his days as a student in
Hastings.[1] De Lubac published several articles in the 1930s
which were to make up much of Surnaturel. Thedevelopment of the
book itself, though, was greatly hindered by the war. In June 1940,
fleeing the advancing Nazis,de Lubac left Lyon with a bag which
included the notebook for Surnaturel, on which he worked for
several days.De Lubac stated in later years that the book had taken
sufficient shape by 1941 to be ready for review; the nihilobstat
was granted in February 1942. However, paper shortages prevented
publication. In 1943, while beinghunted by the Gestapo, de Lubac
fled, again carrying his notebook, this time to Vals. He used the
resources in theVals library to continue his work on the book.
Eventually, in October 1945 the Imprimatur was issued, and in
1946, the book was published (though only as an edition of 700
copies, due to ongoing paper shortages).[2]
Argument
De Lubac's overall question in Surnaturel is therefore how human
persons in the natural order can be interiorlydirected to the order
of grace that fulfils them, without in the least possessing this
grace in anticipation, and withoutbeing able at all to claim it for
themselves. In the book, de Lubac attempts to show how, in an
attempt to answer
this question, what he calls "the system of pure nature" had
come to prevail in Catholic theology.[3]
He argues that in the Fathers and the great scholastics there
was only one concrete order of history, that in whichGod had made
humanity for himself, and in which human nature had thus been
created only for a single destiny,which was supernatural. Neither
the Fathers nor the scholastics, therefore, ever envisioned the
possibility of a
