To Stir a Restless Heart: Thomas Aquinas and Henri de Lubac on Nature, Grace, and the Desire for God (Thomistic Ressourcement Series)

To Stir a Restless Heart tells for the first time the story of how Thomas Aquinas conversed with his contemporaries about the dynamics of human nature's longing for God, and documents how he deliberately utilized Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin sources to develop a version of Aristotelian natural desire that was uniquely Augustinian: natural desire seeks the complete fulfillment of human nature "insofar as is possible," and so comes to rest in the highest end that God offers to it. Depending on whether God offers the free gift of grace to humanity, one and the same natural desire can come to rest in knowing God through creatures or seeing God directly. Tracing the reception of Aquinas in the centuries that follow, Jacob Wood argues that Aquinas's student from among the Augustinian Hermits, Giles of Rome, consciously transformed Aquinas's understanding of human nature. By insisting that every nature has a positive aptitude for one, specific end, Giles tied our natural desire positively and directly to the vision of God, setting up a 700-year challenge among the Augustinian Hermits to explain the integrity of a nature with a supernatural end, as well as the gratuity of the grace which perfects it. Showing how de Lubac's early discovery of that tradition served as a principal source for his "natural desire for a supernatural end," To Stir a Restless Heart argues that many recent criticisms of de Lubac's theological anthropology find ready answers among the Augustinian Hermits, but that a renewed understanding of Aquinas's Augustinianism offers a more complete way forward: it preserves Aristotle's commitment to the integrity of human nature, de Lubac's commitment to the transcendence of human perfection, and Augustine's insistence on the priority and gratuity of divine grace in the work of redemption. Contents List of Figures and Tables Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: To Stir a Restless Heart Augustine's Desire for Happiness The Thomistic Tradition's Natural Desire for God Henri de Lubac's Natural Desire for a Supernatural End A Thirteenth-Century Resolution? Notes about the Text 1. The Parisian Conversation (1231–1252) Theology at the Turn of the Thirteenth Century Twelfth-Century Latin Augustinianism: Peter Lombard The Rise of Aristotle and the Aristotelian Tradition Latin Aristotelian-Augustinianism: Philip the Chancellor Latin Avicennian-Augustinianism Richard Rufus William of Auvergne The Summa fratris Alexandri Latin Averroistic-Augustinianism Roger Bacon Albert the Great A Mid-Thirteenth-Century Synthesis: Bonaventure of Bagnoregio Conclusion 2. Thomas's First Parisian Period (1252–1259) Thomas's Encounter with the Parisian Conversation The Commentary on the Sentences Nature Grace The Desire for God Theological Challenges De veritate Nature and Grace The Natural Desire for God Theological Challenges Conclusion 3. Orvieto (1259/61–1265) The Literal Commentary on Job The Summa contra Gentiles Nature Grace Natural Desire The Natural Desire for God The Natural Desire for the Vision of God Conclusion 4. Rome (1265–1268) Quaestiones disputatae de potentia Quaestiones disputatae de anima Sententia libri De anima Quaestiones disputatae de spiritualibus creaturis The Summa theologiae, Prima pars Nature and Grace Natural Desire The Natural Desire for the Vision of God Conclusion 5. Thomas's Second Parisian Period (1268–1272) Sententia libri Physicorum De unitate intellectus The Condemnation of 1270 and the De malo The Summa theologiae, Prima secundae (1271) Natural Desire The Natural Desire for the Vision of God Nature and Grace Theological Solutions from the Secunda secundae Conclusion 6. Henri de Lubac and the Thomistic Tradition Giles of Rome John Duns Scotus Tommaso de Vio "Cajetan" Francisco Suárez The Aegidian Tradition Henri de Lubac De Lubac's Early Work Surnaturel "Duplex hominis beatitudo" and "Le mystère du surnaturel" Humani Generis and "The Twins" Conclusion De Lubac's Relationship to the Thomistic Tradition Toward the Reconciliation of the Nature/Grace Debate Commentatorial Objections Lubacian Objections Bibliography Index To Stir a Restless Heart tells for the first time the story of how Thomas Aquinas conversed with his contemporaries about the dynamics of human nature's longing for God, and documents how he deliberately utilized Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin sources to develop a version of Aristotelian natural desire that was uniquely Augustinian: natural desire seeks the complete fulfillment of human nature "insofar as is possible," and so comes to rest in the highest end that God offers to it. Depending on whether God offers the free gift of grace to humanity, one and the same natural desire can come to rest in knowing God through creatures or seeing God directly. Tracing the reception of Aquinas in the centuries that follow, Jacob Wood argues that Aquinas's student from among the Augustinian Hermits, Giles of Rome, consciously transformed Aquinas's understanding of human nature. By insisting that every nature has a positive aptitude for one, specific end, Giles tied our natural desire positively and directly to the vision of God, setting up a 700-year challenge among the Augustinian Hermits to explain the integrity of a nature with a supernatural end, as well as the gratuity of the grace which perfects it. Showing how de Lubac's early discovery of that tradition served as a principal source for his "natural desire for a supernatural end," To Stir a Restless Hear t argues that many recent criticisms of de Lubac's theological anthropology find ready answers among the Augustinian Hermits, but that a renewed understanding of Aquinas's Augustinianism offers a more complete way forward: it preserves Aristotle's commitment to the integrity of human nature, de Lubac's commitment to the transcendence of human perfection, and Augustine's insistence on the priority and gratuity of divine grace in the work of redemption