A reader asks for direction in getting started with the work of Henri de Lubac. Here are some suggestions. First, for a very brief summary of his work and contributions, see the chapter on him in Fergus Kerr’s book on twentieth-century Catholic thought. Second, von Balthasar wrote a brief overview of de Lubac’s life and work, which is still in print. Third, recommendations regarding de Lubac’s work itself is harder, because his work ranges over many topics. It depends on... Read more
Sage cautions from de Lubac: In speaking of the generous giving of God, “one must, a fortiori , be careful to correct – if not wholly to avoid – the neo-Platonist metaphors of flux, of gushing, of ‘effluence,’ of emanation, of soaking into things. God is not, as one might think from some Platonist expressions also taken up by Denys, a generosity pouring himself out; it is at best inadequate to see him simply as that ‘fundamental generosity’ which must... Read more
In the sequence of miracles in Matthew 8:23-9:8, the shaking of the sea parallels the violence of the demoniacs and this parallels . . . what? The sin of the paralytic? Perhaps, but it seems more likely that Matthew is working out a parallel between the demons and the scribes. The demons object to Jesus coming to deliver before the time; the scribes object to Jesus claiming power to forgive. Scribal opposition to Jesus is another form of diabolical violence,... Read more
From Nicolas of Cusa: “The more I comprehend that you are incomprehensible, O my God, the more I attain to you, because I attain better the object of my desire . . . . The eternal principle which has given birth to my desire leads it to an unending, infinite end . . . . The end of the intellect is simply to penetrate all things while not penetrating them. It is satisfied neither by the intelligible which it knows,... Read more
De Lubac blames Cajetan for the distortions of Thomas prevalent in modern theology. While claiming to interpret Thomas, Cajetan in fact broke with Thomas in fundamental ways. Most centrally, Cajetan and his modern followers assumed, against Thomas, that no nature can have a desire for any finality that is not within its capacity to achieve. Human beings cannot attain to the visio Dei by the powers of their own nature; therefore, human beings have no natural desire for such an... Read more
Anatole France said, “It is rare for any master to belong to the school he has founded as firmly as his disciples do.” Read more
A partial self-review of Solomon Among the Postmoderns : Ironically, while I problematize beginnings at the outset of the book, I don’t do the same with endings. I treat the “end” as a simple end. Several recent encounters – including a fine paper from my student Ryan Handermann – exposed that mistake, which, once pointed out, is glaringly obvious. Christianity’s “end” is an end only from one angle of vision. From another perspective it is another beginning. It is not... Read more
Henri de Lubac notes that the traditional Christian view that man has a nature inherently receptive to a supernatural gift and fulfillment is based on revelation, and was unknown in ancient philosophy: “For the ancient Greeks – and one may say almost the same of all thinkers, ancient and modern, other than those whose thinking flows from revelation – every nature must find in itself, or in the rest of the cosmos of which it is an integral part, all... Read more
Against political/nationalist interpretations of the Hussite movement, Bynum argues that the central motif of the Hussites was direct access to blood. Two thoughts: First, this is still a central demand of the early Reformation, a point that Bynum touches on but doesn’t develop. Second, she notes that the stress is on the blood separated from the body. They could get blood (according to the scholastic theory of concomitance – the whole Christ is contained in every particle of the host)... Read more
In her history of late medieval blood devotion ( Wonderful Blood , 2007), Caroline Walker Bynum teases out the connections between withdrawal of the cup from the laity and blood mysticism: “some of the cloistered, denied access to the cup at mass, received it in vision. Others (for example, Beatrice of Nazareth and Catherine of Siena) experienced the proffered wafer as the withheld blood, gushing into their mouths or over their bodies. What the clergy denied them, they simply obtained... Read more
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