(Note: the blue horizontal menu bar directly above lists the subsections of "Original Sin in the Bible as Read Today." Beginning with "Acceptance of Evolution by Pope John Paul II," be sure to read each of these subsections before moving on to the next primary section, "New Interpretation of Original Sin.")

The Intimate Relationship between Nature and Grace

Henri de Lubac, SJ. De Lubac (1967) looked at humans' natural desire for God and wondered how it could "stretch toward" the vision of God without losing the gratuity of the supernatural. De Lubac considered the concept of "pure nature" as expendable. To him there never was such a thing. Instead:

Nature is made for the supernatural and is unintelligible without it, though having no rights over it. For de Lubac the spirit is the desire for God, the most absolute of all desires. This "natural" desire is a gift of God. The whole natural order is "permeated by the supernatural, which works on human beings and draws it on…. God wants to give Godself to human beings; they are obliged to work toward communion with God. The desire interiorizes grace, which remains a free gift" (Duffy 1993, 300-301).

Karl Rahner, SJ. Rahner also pondered the relationship between nature and grace. He developed a transcendental method of anthropology, according to which a person becomes aware of his or her openness to God in the very act of self-reflection. That openness is to the possibility of a supernatural self-revelation of God. It is also known as the "supernatural existential," namely "human transcendentality and its elevation and illumination by grace" so that humans may be able to hear God's revealing word. (Duffy 1993, 269). This elevation and illumination by grace takes place at creation, which, along with the Incarnation, constitutes the two moments in the one process of divine self-giving (Duffy 1993, 309).

James A. Carpenter. Carpenter (1988) considers the histories of both Eastern and Western thought on grace, including Irenaeus, Augustine, Tillich, Rahner, Moltmann, Whitehead, and others, and concludes:

We are, I believe, called upon to see nature in the light of grace and grace in the light of nature, not as divorceable, not as identical, but as inseparably related and indeed as intertwined in creation. We need to see the physical world as a community with the human community as part of it, and to see the whole as not only in grace, but of grace (186).