Hans Urs von Balthasar viewed Lubac's theological venture as his attempt to confront the humanism of his time. But more than that, de Lubac was also concerned in his time with the problem of neo-scholastic theology, which alienated man and his life of faith from the teaching and theology of the Church. According to De Lubac, Nietzsche's and Marx's depiction of man shows that they are atheistic humanists.
13 This is more evident in the second chapter of The Drama of Atheistic Humanism, when de Lubac contrasts Nietzsche with the philosopher Kierkegaard. In all these efforts, de Lubac sees Comte being lured into his own trap, caught in the same illusion that a human being can know himself through his own powers.20 Without the possibility of transcendence, man remains within himself. Rosemary Sheed [London: Geoffrey Chapman Susan Wood, "The Nature-Grace Problematic Within Henri de Lubac's Christological Paradox," Communio Chantraine, "The Supernatural Discernment of Catholic Thought From by Henri de Lubac," 28).
In response to these two forms of atheism challenging the Christian faith, De Lubac embarked on a rediscovery of the nature of God and his relationship with man. Using various sources available to him in his time, De Lubac sought an answer to the question of divine revelation. 29See Chantraine, “The Supernatural Discernment of Catholic Thought According to Henri de Lubac,” 31; Nichols, "Henri de Lubac: Panorama and Proposal," 14.
Augustine on de Lubac's articulation of revelation, see Henri de Lubac, The Revelation of God, trans. 33 While Claudel was mentioned throughout The Revelation of God (see Xavier Tilliette, “Henri de Lubac: The Legacy of a Theologian,” trans. Mark Sebanc, Communio de Lubac devotes an entire section of the Drama of Atheistic Humanism to Dostoevsky's novels. (see de Lubac, The Drama of Atheistic Humanism, 161–244) His study of the Angelic Doctor and the development of his thought in history led de Lubac to challenge and confront the Thomism of his day.
What de Lubac then saw in the mystical tradition is an attempt to speak of God as he appears. God dwells there and man realizes him there. It not only affirms that the mystery of God cannot be grasped by concept; it also shows that this mystery can only be experienced and confirmed in the depths of man.
Here one can see how de Lubac reinforces the notion of God's remoteness from thought, while at the same time offering a way, indeed the only way, to confirm God's existence and his relationship with man. At this point, it is also remarkable that for de Lubac it is precisely in the mystery of the Incarnation and therefore in Jesus Christ that paradoxes become alive and tangible for the human being, without being reduced or relegated to one expression or another. , for He Himself is a paradox who is both God and man (see Wood, “The Nature-Grace Problematic Within Henri de Lubac's Christological Paradox,” 401; de Lubac, The Discovery of God, 28–29). See also Wood, “The Nature-Grace Problematic Within Henri de Lubac's Christological Paradox Tilliette, “Henri de Lubac: The Legacy of a Theologican,” 339–40.
De Lubac points out that we can only truly meet and fully experience the mystery of God in Jesus Christ who reveals Himself in the depths of our human heart.
Mystery as the Foundation of the Christian Faith and Life
To return to the great insights of the ancient and medieval Church about creation, he says that this way of understanding divine revelation also leads us to a certain way of understanding man as a being. De Lubac sees the human person as inescapably and strongly linked to the Creator in whose image he is created. De Lubac defends his position and explains it further in the context of the relationship between God as Creator and man as creature.
De Lubac further adds that through Christ man comes to know not only the charity of God, but also the charity that he is called to live and be (see de Lubac, "The Mystery of the Supernatural. But more than that, it is also through Christ, that man comes to fully know himself as such (de Lubac, Catholicism, 339.) For de Lubac it is clear that man, by existing, is ordained to a supernatural end.
He maintains that this sanctification to the ultimate goal is still a separate gift (donum) from that given to man (datum) at the moment of creation. With this articulation, de Lubac is still able to preserve God's gratuitousness towards man without resorting to two separate planes standing against each other.82. Wood points out that de Lubac describes this as "circumcision". It must be clarified that the supernatural is not added to nature, but within man is both one with nature and different from it (de Lubac, A Short Catechesis on Nature and Grace, 43; Wood, “The Nature-Grace” Problematic within of Henri de Lubac's Christological Paradox,” 398).
This raises a question: what then is the place of the strength of obedience, described as a certain "non-abhorrence" of God and used by Cajetan and other modernist commentators to refer to the natural desire for God that opens man to a supernatural end ( Wood, "The Nature-Grace Problematic Within Henri de Lubac's Christological Paradox," 390-391). Thomas's own way of explaining the natural desire for God only if there is a purely natural order to man, which, as de Lubac shows throughout The Mystery of the Supernatural, would not be the case (Wood, "The Nature" -Grace Problematic Within Henri de Lubac's Christological Paradox," 393; de Lubac, The Mystery of the Supernatural, 182-185). The donum given to man is ultimately rooted in its source—namely, the mystery of God who reveals himself. 83 This enables us to see this nature and grace –.
The relationship between nature and grace is analogous to the relationship between human nature and divine nature in Jesus Christ. Most importantly, the ordination of the human being to his supernatural end, which is God's donum perfectum given in charity, is seen in the very life of Christ, which culminates in His glorification through His passion, death, and resurrection. .85 Thus, it can be seen here that the unity of nature and grace can be traced and founded only in the mystery of God. 85 Wood, "The Nature-Grace Problematic Within Henri de Lubac's Christological Paradox," 401; de Lubac, A Brief Catechesis on Nature & Grace, 81–83.
Conclusion
Here one sees the paradoxical nature of the Church: it is particular and yet universal, in this world but not of this world. These are characteristics which the Church shares analogously and participatoryly with Christ, who is both human and divine. This unity, expressed in paradoxes, can only be fully understood in the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, both immanent and transcendent.
For de Lubac, what underlies these three interrelated elements is divine revelation—God's personal self-revelation that can only be understood in the context of our encounter with Him in faith. By accepting and entering into this mystery, we can understand the unity of the Christian life in all its aspects, a unity expressed in various paradoxical units (the human being and God, nature and grace, the Church and Christ, among others ) that have already been realized. and yet still strives to be fully realized. For de Lubac, the final word on these paradoxes is yet to be explored and discovered.
Just as "the deep calls to the deep" (Psalm 42:7), God calls us from the depths of our being to new ways of seeing and experiencing the truth, to a new way of meeting and knowing him whom we long for.89 . Moreover, the mystery of God, who reveals himself as charity, is fully manifested in and through Jesus Christ; this mystery stands as the foundation not only for the knowledge of God, but also for man himself and the world. De Lubac's articulation of divine revelation thus sheds light on several aspects of the Christian faith and life, especially those we confront and struggle with today.
We can discover in de Lubac's work a fundamental openness to the questions of his time, as well as a willingness to provide answers that take into account early Christian sources and the great theologians of the Church. In his struggle with questions of human existence and his inseparable bond with God, de Lubac left us a great legacy: a commitment to and passion for knowledge of the Christian faith that leads to a renewal and reorientation of one's life.
Works Cited
Henri de Lubac: In Search of Books to Read the World.” In The Sources: A Movement for Renewal in Twentieth-Century Catholic Theology, ed.
