Natura Pura: On the Recovery of Nature in the Doctrine of Grace

294 Pages·2010·2.61 MB·English

by  Steven A. Long

NATURA PURA
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RomanusCessario,O.P.
JosephKoterski,S.J.
serieseditors
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NATURA PURA
(cid:2)
n the Recovery of Nature
in the Doctrine of Grace
STEVEN A. LONG
(cid:3)ordham(cid:4)niversity(cid:5)ress new york 2010
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Copyright(cid:2)2010FordhamUniversityPress
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybe
reproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted
inanyformorbyanymeans—electronic,mechanical,
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FordhamUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthe
persistenceoraccuracyofURLsforexternalorthird-
partyInternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuch
websitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Long,StevenA.
Naturapura:ontherecoveryofnatureinthedoctrine
ofgrace/StevenA.Long.—1sted.
p. cm.—(Moralphilosophyandmoraltheology)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978–0-8232–3105–8(cloth:alk.paper)
1.Grace(Theology)—Historyofdoctrines.
2.Nature—Historyofdoctrines. 3.Thomas,Aquinas,
Saint,1225?–1274.Summatheologica. 4.Catholic
Church—Doctrines.5.Philosophicaltheology.
I.Title.
BT761.3.L662010
233(cid:2).5—dc22
2009036160
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
12 11 10 5 4 3 2 1
Firstedition
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
ChapterOne: OntheLoss,andtheRecovery, of
NatureasaTheonomicPrinciple:Reflections onthe
Nature/Grace Controversy 10
ChapterTwo: ACriticism ofNatureasVacuoleforGrace 52
ChapterThree: OntheImproprietyof
TreatingTheology’sHandmaidenlikean Analytic 110
ChapterFour: WhyNaturaPuraIsNottheTheological
StalkingHorse forSecularistMinimalismorPelagianism 140
ChapterFive: Conclusion 200
Appendix: CardinalRatzingerandPopeBenedictXVI 212
Notes 223
Index 273
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Acknowledgments
First of all, I am profoundly thankful for the constant sympathy and
support ofmy wife,AnnaMaria,throughoutthewriting ofthisbook,
as I am for my children’s understanding of the role that writing plays
intheirfather’slifeandwork.
Thisworkanditsauthoroweaparticulardebttothetwoexemplary
scholars Professor Ralph McInerny and Professor John Boyle for their
incisively astute commentary and observations, as alike for their great
appreciation for this book. To say that I am grateful to these scholars
for theirencouragement would besheer understatement. Ishould also
liketothanktheeditorsofthisseries,Fr.JosephKoterski,S.J.,andFr.
Romanus Cessario, O.P. Their openness to revisiting so central and
profound a question as the right relation of grace to nature, and to
considering the ever-widening series of implications, problems, and
dangers consequent on the effort to recover from the error of treating
natureasmerelyavacuoleforgrace,isthereasonwhythepresentwork
hasbeenabletocomeintoexistence.
Further, although I have been preoccupied with these themes for
many years, and published concerning them even before Professor
Lawrence Feingold wrote his important book, nonetheless Feingold’s
magisterialworkOntheNaturalDesireforGodAccordingtoSt.Thomas
Aquinas and His Interpreters has also played a role in re-energizing my
engagement with this subject. Not only I, but the scholarly world at
large, owe Dr. Feingold a debt of thanks for the magnitude of his
accomplishment.
Ihavederivedgreatbenefitfromthesagaciouscriticismsandsugges-
tions of my friend and colleague Professor Roger Nutt, and from the
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viii Acknowledgments
helpful encouragement and friendship of Professor Gregory Vall (who
isnottobeblamedforthiswork,butonlyacknowledgedforencourag-
ing sympathy and friendship toward the one who wrote it). And it
wouldbe impossiblenot tonote thedialogic encouragementprovided
the writing of this book by Professor Joseph Trabbic, who nonetheless
is wholly innocent of its thesis and a great appreciator of Balthasar’s
theology. I am also indebted to Professor Matthew Levering for his
customarilyperspicacious editorialsuggestions,offered amidstreserva-
tions regarding aspects of this project. I am grateful to the academic
dean of Ave Maria University, Professor Michael Dauphinais, for his
helpfulness in sustaining the project of this book. Michael Waldstein,
the Max Seckler Professor of Theology at Ave Maria University, is to
be thanked for aiding the author in one strategically judicious textual
correction, and for his friendship and speculative engagement which
athwart all difference is always instructive and edifying. I am grateful
to Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., whose friendship and generosity have ex-
tended to his conversations with me regarding this book, with whose
thesis he significantly disagrees: would that all theological differences
couldbediscussedintheambienceofsuchgraciousfriendship.Heart-
feltthanksareowedtoSarahByersofBostonCollegeforherjudicious
encouragementregardingthecoverartforthisbook.
I should like to thank Helen Tartar and Eric Newman of Fordham
University Press for their professionalism and cheerful generosity in
overseeingthefinalstagesofthepreparationofthismanuscript.Words
of gratitude are also owed to my indefatigable research assistant, Mat-
thew Ryan McWhorter, who has been a great help in preparing this
manuscriptforthePress.
Finally, I should like to acknowledge the invaluable debt I owe to
my deceased father and mother, James and Rosemary Long. In God’s
good providence my life, together with so many other good things,
cametome throughtheirgenerosity:how canone everbegintorepay
them?Theirfortitude,fidelity,andlovecontinuetoilluminemypath.
Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, and let thy perpetual light shine
uponthem,andmaytheyrestinpeace.
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