Erich Przywara on Nature‐Grace Extrinsicism: A Parallax View

Abstract

This article argues that Erich Przywara's analogical understanding of the nature-grace relationship, though sometimes thought to align with the anti-extrinsicist positions of Blondel, de Lubac, and Balthasar, differs from these by virtue of its "parallax" view. The standard bearers of the nouvelle théologie hold that Aquinas teaches a natural desire for the beatific vision and deny, more generally, the utility of the concept of pure nature for safeguarding the gratuity of the supernatural. Przywara, by contrast, holds that Aquinas, like the Christian tradition more broadly, alternates between theoretical lines of sight, with the result that the capacity for the beatific vision appears to lie, by turns, both in and beyond human nature. This apparent difference of position is what this article calls the "parallax" effect. According to Przywara, one attains the least inadequate view of nature and grace by entering the "rhythm" of mutual correction between various perspectives. Though he refines his articulation of this rhythm across the course of his career, Przywara consistently upholds the concept of pure nature as a legitimate theological Konstruktionsprinzip and salutary corrective to "intrinsicist" accents. The complete picture of nature and grace thus lies in the interplay of the various ecclesially approved theological traditions. Suspendium elegit anima mea-Bonaventure, Itinerarium mentis ad Deum 7, 6.

Late Medieval Mysticism and the Analogy of Grace and Nature

“…A further word regarding Przywara's specifically analogical approach is required. Aaron Pidel has helpfully described Przywara's view of the historical problem of grace and nature as 'parallax' (Pidel 2020) that is, grace and nature are seen differently in relation to one another depending on one's shifting perspective. The solution, in Przywara's view, to the varied perspectives found in the twentieth-century debates is not in their amalgamation, nor in the selection of one to the exclusion of others, but in the rhythmic tension between them, following the operative principles laid down in Przywara's Analogia Entis.…”