Natural reason enables us to apprehend the visible world through our sensate abilities, which are inherent to our nature as finite beings. This "finitude" of our nature (from dust) does not mean we are not spiritual; Aquinas would refer to this as the "formal cause" or "essence" of a thing, and go on to explain how all living things have this essence (from plants to animals), and this is what he identifies as the soul. Human beings are thus an integrated composite of soul and body. So while we are physical beings with a spiritual essence (1 Cor 15: 37), our ability to apprehend the visible world of the senses does not enable us direct access to knowledge of the divine. This needs to be given "as a gift" above our natural reason... so while we can comprehend and benefit from this knowledge, it is something that needs to be "divinely revealed" above our direct sensate knowledge of the physical world. In a similar way, mankind's immortality prior to the fall was not something innate, but an external gift, depicted in scripture (in this exterior way) as "the tree of life" (Gen 2:9). It was something Adam had access to, but was not inherent to his nature. This does not negate the emphasis of an eschatological end of man - Adam was on a journey - but to claim that his immortality and ability to commune with God was innate to his human nature is a Pelagian conception of pre-fall man (condemned at the Council of Orange in 529 in response to the Pelagians [CANON 19]). This is why, on a Catholic view, it is impossible for "works based" salvation - even before the fall, man was in need of God's Grace to remain in right relationship with Him; any "work" outside of this Grace will be insufficient for salvation, even if it is a "natural good". By removing the Donum Superadditum, or Supernaturalè, you effectively deify man, something which Bavinck (in retaliation to the Catholic view of nature and grace) flirted with dangerously when he stated that "The natural is not something of lesser value and of a lower order... ...It is just as divine as the church" (p.29 Bijbelsche en religieuze psychologie).
Natural reason enables us to apprehend the visible world through our sensate abilities, which are inherent to our nature as finite beings. This "finitude" of our nature (from dust) does not mean we are not spiritual; Aquinas would refer to this as the "formal cause" or "essence" of a thing, and go on to explain how all living things have this essence (from plants to animals), and this is what he identifies as the soul. Human beings are thus an integrated composite of soul and body.
So while we are physical beings with a spiritual essence (1 Cor 15: 37), our ability to apprehend the visible world of the senses does not enable us direct access to knowledge of the divine. This needs to be given "as a gift" above our natural reason... so while we can comprehend and benefit from this knowledge, it is something that needs to be "divinely revealed" above our direct sensate knowledge of the physical world. In a similar way, mankind's immortality prior to the fall was not something innate, but an external gift, depicted in scripture (in this exterior way) as "the tree of life" (Gen 2:9). It was something Adam had access to, but was not inherent to his nature. This does not negate the emphasis of an eschatological end of man - Adam was on a journey - but to claim that his immortality and ability to commune with God was innate to his human nature is a Pelagian conception of pre-fall man (condemned at the Council of Orange in 529 in response to the Pelagians [CANON 19]). This is why, on a Catholic view, it is impossible for "works based" salvation - even before the fall, man was in need of God's Grace to remain in right relationship with Him; any "work" outside of this Grace will be insufficient for salvation, even if it is a "natural good".
By removing the Donum Superadditum, or Supernaturalè, you effectively deify man, something which Bavinck (in retaliation to the Catholic view of nature and grace) flirted with dangerously when he stated that "The natural is not something of lesser value and of a lower order... ...It is just as divine as the church" (p.29 Bijbelsche en religieuze psychologie).
What did I just hear Camden say something positive about Kline? 😂. What universe is this?