Von Balthasar puts the nature/grace distinction in simple terms, and ones that resonate with certain strains of Reformed theology: “It belongs to the very essence of the creature that it must indeed be creature, but not a creature who has been exalted to a new order of grace: by nature a creature is the ‘servant’ but not the ‘friend’ of God.”
This is ambiguous: are we talking about “creatures” in general or about the specific creature that was Adam? What are we denying when we deny that man is not “by nature” a friend? Does that mean he’s not created a friend of God, or that friendship with God isn’t inherent in his “nature,” whatever that might be?
In any case, while we might be able to imagine a human being created purely as “servant,” that’s not how Adam was created. Adam was created as “son” (Luke 3:38).
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Classroom Heals the Wounds of Generations
“Hope,” wrote the German-American polymath Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, “is the deity of youth.” Wholly dependent on adults, children…
Still Life, Still Sacred
Renaissance painters would use life-sized wooden dolls called manichini to study how drapery folds on the human…
Letters
I am writing not to address any particular article, but rather to register my concern about the…
