Autor: Stebbins, J. Michael

Buch: The Divine Initiative

Titel: The Divine Initiative

Stichwort: Philipp d. Kanzler (habituelle Gnade): Seele - Vermögen = Gnade - Glaube, Liebe; gratia sanans, elevans

Kurzinhalt: Just as those faculties represent potencies flowing from the soul ... so the virtues of faith and charity represent potencies flowing from grace; one can also observe here the elevating function of grace

Textausschnitt: eg: Überstieg von der gratia sanans zur gratia elevans

41/3 Philip himself was responsible for giving the notion of habitual grace its initial expression (GO:30; GF:16-17). In attempting to grasp the meaning of the Pauline theme of the life that comes through faith in Christ (e.g., Romans 1:17, Galatians 2:20), Philip made use of the Aristotelian distinction between the soul and its operative faculties. Just as those faculties represent potencies flowing from the soul, which is the principle that gives life to the body, so the virtues of faith and charity represent potencies flowing from grace, which is the principle that gives a higher kind of life to the soul, making it pleasing to God and thereby rendering works performed through charity worthy of eternal merit. In this manner the use of a natural analogy enabled Philip to distinguish grace from faith and charity, instead of identifying them with one another, and to specify their interrelationship. More important, one can also observe here the elevating function of grace that first appeared in the distinction between charity and natural love of God. It marks a crucial turning-point. Before Philip's insight, the necessity of grace had been predicated solely on the wounded condition of nature after the fall. The theorem of the supernatural, however, expresses an incapacity of human nature that is due not to sin but to our nature's intrinsic limitations. Even if we were in the state of innocence, we would need to be elevated by grace in order to attain the knowledge of faith and the love of charity. This function of grace is not sanans but elevans, and for all practical purposes it had been overlooked by generation after generation of theologians engaged in the effort to explain the necessity of grace. Thus, Philip the Chancellor's notion of a grace that is explicitly supernatural represents a decisive advance beyond the traditional position that saw grace as performing only a psychological function. (81; Fs) (notabene)