8/4/2015

Surnaturel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Surnaturel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Surnaturel is a book written by the Roman-Catholic theologian Henri de Lubac. It stands among his most famous
and controversial works.
In this book he traces the historical meaning of the word 'supernatural' and notes a shift in implication. Up to the
High Middle Ages, the essential contrast was drawn between 'natural' and 'moral'. After that, the contrast was seen
between 'natural and supernatural'. De Lubac is trying here to establish the correct understanding of Aquinas on this
subject.

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. The
development 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 nihil
obstat was granted in February 1942. However, paper shortages prevented publication. In 1943, while being
hunted by the Gestapo, de Lubac fled, again carrying his notebook, this time to Vals. He used the resources in the
Vals 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 interiorly
directed to the order of grace that fulfils them, without in the least possessing this grace in anticipation, and without
being 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 which
God 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
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