140. Nature and natural virtue
140. NATURE AND NATURAL VIRTUE
St. Thomas is often accused of a “two-layer” theory of man and of virtue. What is the basis for this charge? To what extent is there a real distinction between supernatural and natural virtue?
. . . [V]irtues acquired by human acts . . . are dispositions whereby a man is fittingly disposed with reference to the nature whereby he is a man; whereas infused (supernatural) virtues dispose man in a higher manner and towards a higher end and in relation to (God) . . . i.e., in relation to a participation in the divine nature, according to Second Peter 1:4: He hath given us most great and most precious promises, that by these you may be made partakers of the divine nature. And it is in respect of receiving this nature that we are said to be born again as sons of God. . . .
Grace . . . is a participation of (in) the divine nature . . . (I-II,110.3).
There are indeed two distinct dimensions in man: nature and grace, what man does from his own created nature and what man does from supernatural grace.
To reduce either one of these to the other constitutes a very basic error. Some, especially the fundamentalists, deny any value to the natural level at all, ignoring creation and focusing only on redemption. Others, especially the “modernists”, deny, ignore, or minimize the supernatural and miraculous. Fundamentalists deny nature, which is stupid, but modernists deny grace, which is stupider.
Modernists deny miracles. But grace is not an external gift, like most other miracles. It is the very presence and life (i.e., the “nature” as mentioned in 2 Peter 1:4) of God in the soul, of all three Persons of the Trinity. For God is perfect love, and perfect love is the gift of the lover’s very self to the beloved.
It is almost as insulting to God to deny nature as to deny grace, for it is God who created everything in nature with natural dispositions or tendencies: grass grows, fire burns, birds fly, stars shine, all because of their nature. For grass not to grow or for birds not to fly would be unnatural, i.e., against their nature.
“Nature” for pre-modern cultures meant not simply the material universe but the invisible principle or energy-source in each thing that moves it to act in its unique way. A thing’s nature is the source of its distinctive activities. It is how we recognize and classify things.
St. Thomas teaches essentially three things about natural virtue: (1) that God created man with natural tendencies to virtues: e.g., to love, to trust, to seek and tell the truth, to be fair, and to regulate his bodily passions by the wisdom of his soul; (2) that all these were perverted and twisted by the Fall into sin and selfishness; and (3) that though they were weakened by their opposite vices, they were not abolished. Some criticize St. Thomas for his pessimism (sentence 2 above) and others for his optimism (sentences 1 and 3), as Christ was criticized theologically by both “fundamentalist” Pharisees and “modernist” Sadduccees, and politically by both Herodian collaborators and Zealot revolutionaries. When you’re completely right, both sides think you’re wrong.
The natural virtues are distinguished from supernatural or “theological” virtues (faith, hope and charity) by four things: (1) their source is miraculous, supernatural grace; (2) their object is God; (3) they are made known to us only by divine revelation, and (4) their end is our participation in the very divine nature. (This too is scriptural: see the quotation from 2 Peter 1:4 above. But how often do we hear about this, the ultimate divine gift and our ultimate human destiny?)
Here is C. S. Lewis’ commentary on 2 Peter 1:4: “The dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship” (The Weight of Glory). “All the rabbit in us is to disappear—the worried, conscientious, ethical rabbit as well as the cowardly and sensual rabbit. We shall bleed and squeal as the handfuls of fur come out; and then, surprisingly, we shall find underneath it all something we never yet imagined: a real Man, an ageless god, a son of God, strong, radiant, wise, beautiful, and drenched in joy” (“Man or Rabbit?”).