Tragic metaphysics

Henri de Lubac notes that the traditional Christian view that man has a nature inherently receptive to a supernatural gift and fulfillment is based on revelation, and was unknown in ancient philosophy: “For the ancient Greeks – and one may say almost the same of all thinkers, ancient and modern, other than those whose thinking flows from revelation – every nature must find in itself, or in the rest of the cosmos of which it is an integral part, all that it needs for its completion. Basically, everything has always been perfectly balanced. The apparent imbalance, whether progress or regression, is merely a phenomenon of flux and reflux within a totality that is already complete. The universe is like a snake coiled upon itself: its movement is necessarily eternal, and circular . . . . One will ultimately gain no more than one had – though perhaps in a different form – from the first, or rather, from all time. One can do no more than regain possession of what one has momentarily – and of course only apparently – lost.”

Aristotle put one of the implications succinctly: “Whatever has a beginning must have an end.” Anything that starts as not-being must end not-being. The soul’s immortality depends on being eternal, that is, strictly divine. Christianity taught created immortality.

Put it geometrically: For ancient thought, there are only lines and line-segments; Christianity introduced vectors.