The History of Christian Theology

Lecture 13: The Incomprehensible and the Supernatural

The solution proposed by Thomas

Aquinas is the concept of supernatural

grace. He teaches that it is beyond the

natural capacity of any created being to

understand God with the intellect. Yet it is

not beyond the capacity of a mind elevated

by supernatural grace. Hence there is a

type of grace which does not just heal and

help human nature but elevates it, raising

it up to a level where it may see God.

This elevating grace is “super-natural”

in the sense that it raises human (and

angelic) natures above (Latin super) their

natural capacities, but it is also a created

grace. Thus even sinless natures, such as

the angels, cannot come to their ultimate

happiness without grace. This concept of

the supernatural develops, in Aquinas especially, into a distinctively Roman

Catholic notion of grace and its relation to human nature. Ŷ

Aquinas, Summa Theologica, pt. 1, Question 12, in Introduction to St.

Thomas Aquinas (edited by Pegis), as well as the complete edition of

Summa Theologica.

Cary, Augustine’s Invention of the Inner Self, chap. 4.

Dionysius, Mystical Theology in Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works.

Plotinus, “The Three Initial Hypostases” in The Enneads.

1. Does Christian theology bene¿ t by having some neo-Platonism in
   its background?


2. Must God be incomprehensible? Why or why not?

Portrait of St. Thomas

Aquinas, the greatest of all

medieval theologians.

© Photos.com/Thinkstock.

Suggested Reading

Questions to Consider