Marx the neo-Scholastic

De Lubac blames Cajetan for the distortions of Thomas prevalent in modern theology. While claiming to interpret Thomas, Cajetan in fact broke with Thomas in fundamental ways. Most centrally, Cajetan and his modern followers assumed, against Thomas, that no nature can have a desire for any finality that is not within its capacity to achieve. Human beings cannot attain to the visio Dei by the powers of their own nature; therefore, human beings have no natural desire for such an end, but can rest satisfied with a purely natural end.

Several times de Lubac points to analogies between this position and that of Marx: “Man, Marx says similarly, never sets himself any problems he cannot resolve.”