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Directed by desire: An exploration based on the structures of the desire for God

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Klaas Bom
Klaas Bom*
Affiliation:
Krugerlaan 36, NL 2806 EJ Gouda, The Netherlandskl.bom@hetnet.nl
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Abstract

The concept of ‘desire’ offers an interesting bridge between cultural phenomena of contemporary society and the theological tradition. The exploration of some key elements of this tradition concerning desire supports the launching of a ‘theology of desire’. Although the natural desire for God, as discussed in the so-called ‘théologie nouvelle’, provides very valuable material for this exploration, ‘desire’ is conceived here in a somewhat broader sense. Three levels of desire are distinguished. The ‘lover's desire’ refers to the conscious affirmation of the presence of God's love. The second level, called the ‘seeker's desire’, concerns a more general desire for happiness. Third, the desire for God as an ontological term refers to the relationship between God and humankind. The desire for God, revealed by Jesus Christ, demonstrates the ultimate capacity of our human nature. Thus christology, and especially the creed of Chalcedon, offers the key to systematic anthropology. Finally, the daily reality of the desire for God is discussed with the help of Gregory of Nyssa's concept of asceticism. The integrating power of the Holy Spirit makes the channelling of our desires possible, so that the desire for God forms a part of daily life. Three challenges to encourage continuation on the way toward a theology of desire form the conclusion. The reconsidering of an ontological approach in theology, the priority to christology in systematic anthropology and the ethical and missionary possibilities of the desire for God are invitations for theologians to further explore the theology of desire.

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Type
Research Article
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Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 62 , Issue 2 , May 2009 , pp. 135 - 148
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 2009

The recent and creative work of Xavier Quinzá Lleó and Sarah Coakley shows that desire offers an interesting bridge between phenomena of contemporary society and the Christian theological tradition of the ages. Quinzá Lleó is a Spanish Jesuit theologian from Valencia. In a small book with the title La cultura del deseo y la seducción de Dios, he analyses commercials as an important expression of the ‘culture of desire’ of contemporary society.Footnote 1 The author pleads for an understanding of the Christian message as a reorientation of human desire, based on God's offer of the ‘salvation of desire’. Sarah Coakley, Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University, expressed in 2005 in an outspoken way her interest in desire as a theological subject of importance. The subtitle of Coakley's article ‘Pleasure Principles’ – on celibacy and sexual ethics – reads ‘toward a contemporary theology of desire’.Footnote 2 Coakley's interest in desire is not new. The announcement of a theology of desire, however, is something else. This gives rise to expectations which go beyond a mere creative contribution. These expectations are, however, not satisfied by her article. Consequently, the project to develop a theology of desire is subject to question.

The most important question that this project raises is the following. Can ‘desire’ play the central role in an integrating perspective on the breadth of the theological ‘loci’, as you may expect when ‘a theology of . . .’ is announced? In other words: is desire such a potentially central notion in Christian thinking that basing a theology on it appears to be viable? To answer this question, I present an exploration of the basis that desire for God has in traditional theological reflection. This central question implies that a merely systematic presentation will not suffice, given that the development of desire as a theological theme has developed through the centuries. I therefore chose to search for the seminal, structural elements in the theological reflection on desire. This search has led me to concentrate on just a few influential Christian thinkers.

This exploration is composed of three sections. The first section shows the profound significance of desire for the understanding of the human condition. The desire for God as the revelation of the ultimate capacity of human beings is the object of the second section. The last section discusses the implications of the integrating process of this desire in daily human life. The structural elements of the classical understanding of the desire for God appear to offer sufficient connections with the main chapters of systematic theology, and even promote a fresh understanding of tradition. This article then concludes with some important challenges for a theology of desire.

Desire and the human condition

Introduction: ‘La théologie nouvelle’

An examination of the concept of ‘desire’ in theology leads us almost automatically to the impressive output of Roman Catholic theologians in the middle of the twentieth century. The huge amount of literature on nature and grace, produced from the 1920s until the 1970s by people like Henri de Lubac, can be seen as the result of the Roman Catholic catharsis with regard to the theology of grace.Footnote 3 Their study of the authors of high scholasticism on the one hand, and the very influential interpreters of the theology of St Thomas of the sixteenth century on the other, makes clear that the theology of the Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reformation had strongly modified the traditional Augustinian understanding of grace by scholastic theologians.Footnote 4 In sharp opposition to the radical theology of grace of the Protestants, a theology of ‘deux étages’ was developed.Footnote 5 This two-floor construction consists of a basic layer of nature, in which human beings can achieve their ‘natural’ destination. This means that people can achieve their potential as human beings, with some help from God's grace but basically on their own. Additionally, God offers human life a second level of fulfilment, the call to a ‘supernatural’ encounter with God. This structure was invented to safeguard the freeness of grace, but entailed the drastic consequence of the complete separation of the natural sphere of creation and the supernatural sphere of God. Cajetan (1469–1534) appeared to be one of the most important early defenders of this two-layer construction, in which, obviously, there was no place for a ‘natural desire’ for God.Footnote 6 Theologians like De Lubac returned to a perspective on grace in which God's supernatural gifts are not additions to a more or less self-sufficient nature. In their quest for the traditional view on grace, they realised that the natural desire for God was an important element of the traditional theology that made the ‘deux étages’ impossible, since it indicates clearly the fundamental dependence on God's fulfilling grace. This theology is usually called ‘théologie nouvelle’. Its rich production reminds us that scholastic theology offers a very important perspective on the role of desire in theology.

Three levels of desire

Although the théologie nouvelle focused on so-called natural desire, Christian tradition discusses desire in much broader terms.Footnote 7 In this field, I recognise three closely related yet distinct levels of desire.

The first level: lover's desire

In the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, the desire for God is part of the intense vocabulary of God's people.Footnote 8 Hosea used the language of lovers to describe the relation between God and Israel, and this has come to be perceived, at least in the Christian world, as the most powerful expression of this relation. The lover's language culminates in St John's equivalence between God and Love.Footnote 9 In this context it is not surprising to hear that believers ‘desire God’. Desiring God is an expression of the voluntary human response to God. As in every love relationship, such desire is expressed as the conscious attraction to the other person. This first level of desire for God, as an element of the love between lovers, is abundantly present in mystic literature.

In patristic theology, for example in the works of Gregory of Nyssa and St Augustine, as well as in scholastic theology, this desire is not exclusively an activity of the will. On the contrary, in most of the theological texts of these periods, the intellectual element plays a more important role, since the destination of the soul is perceived as ‘contemplating God’.Footnote 10

The second level: seeker's desire

This very personalised and well orientated first level of desire is related to a far more general mode of desire. In the world of the ancients, the idea of a general desire for happiness was widespread and is a priori in the analysis of human action. Many Christian theologians included this idea in their perception of the human condition – St Augustine for example.Footnote 11 Until the current day this level of desire can be encountered in Christian argumentation. The desire for happiness is seen as a necessity for the will – humans cannot not-will happiness – so it is an essential characteristic of the human will.Footnote 12 Just as understanding seeks knowledge to find the truth, the will searches for happiness to find the good. Desire for ‘well-being’ is one of the clearest demonstrations of the eccentric structure of human beings. So the will is not perceived as being neutral, but orientated toward the Good. Although this desire is a necessary function of the will, that does not mean that people need to be conscious of it.

This second level of desire is much more open than the lover's desire. What will bring satisfaction to this desire, is not clear a priori. At the seeker's level, desire refers to the drive behind choices. Traditionally, theologians have denied that the lover's desire is the natural perfection of the seeker's. Not recognising the source of happiness will lead to concupiscence, the abuse of this desire.Footnote 13 In Christian theology, the act of free will must give this desire its specific orientation. On this point, we can observe a decisive adjustment by Christian thinkers of the desire in (Neo)platonic perspective where the orientation on the ultimate Good indicates the necessary direction of all things.Footnote 14 Although St Augustine appears to refer to this level of desire with the famous words ‘Inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in Te’ (Confessions, 1. 1. 1), he never calls it ‘natural desire for God’.

The third level: ontological desire

Although St Augustine and Gregory of Nyssa, as two examples of patristic theologians writing on desire, do not use a term like natural desire or appetite, it is clear that for them the desire for God is the result of the ontological distance or difference between humanity and God.Footnote 15 God IS different from us, just as the Creator is different from creation. The immeasurable discontinuity on ontological level leads in Gregory's theology even to the idea that the human spirit's journey to God does not stop when the soul is united with God.Footnote 16

In high scholasticism, when the oncoming emancipation put much more pressure on the relation between Creator and creature within Christian thought, the ontological element of desire demands a specific treatment. The ‘natural desire for God’ became a particular term to indicate this ontological level of speaking about desire. In the scholastic literature, however, the term ‘natural desire for God’ is not well defined, and there is confusion about the use of terms such as desire, appetite and tendency. The term ‘natural’, one of the most dynamic terms in the history of Western thought, is especially prone to being used in different ways.Footnote 17 However, I will try to give a general description of this level of desire.

For this exploration, I make use of the analysis of the studies of Henri de Lubac by Michael Figura. De Lubac focused quite strongly on Thomas Aquinas. Vanneste makes clear that the theology of Thomas Aquinas is not free from elements which provoked the two-floor theology.Footnote 18 To balance this priority of St Thomas somewhat, I will include some commentaries based on the theology of John Duns Scotus.Footnote 19 Alfaro assures us that, although there is some difference between Duns Scotus and Thomas on this point, most theologians of the Thomistic tradition – until Cajetan – agree with Scotus also.Footnote 20

The main characteristics of the desire on ontological level are:

  1. a. It is neither an addition to human nature nor a function or act of a particular human capacity – such as the will – but an inclination of the whole person and therefore intrinsic in every faculty of our humanity. It logically precedes the will and understanding.Footnote 21 It is qualified as ‘essential’.Footnote 22

  2. b. It is a passive inclination to the vision of God, which can only receive fulfilment from God, because its goal is beyond human capacities.Footnote 23

  3. c. Human beings cannot know this orientation to God, other than by divine revelation.Footnote 24

  4. d. The desire for God is made active – to become a lover's desire – by God's grace.Footnote 25 In the presence of grace, our humanity is not violated by God.Footnote 26 God's grace acts within the framework of creation. This active tendency alone includes the conaturality of Love between God and humanity.Footnote 27

Comparative perspective on the three levels of desire

Comparing the three levels of desire, it becomes clear in which way these levels are related. I have listed the most important insights:

  1. A All levels include an orientation or a goal. This appears to be a necessary element of desire. Comparing the first two levels, the lover's desire is personally focused, while the seeker's is a more general drive, depending on an inter-subjective understanding of happiness and goodness. The positive inclination at the ontological level has the specific character to be knowable only by grace (i.e. revelation).

  2. B Concerning the natural aspect of desire, what in Scotus’ perception means something like ‘within the capacities and possibilities of creation’, all levels of desire can be called ‘natural’.Footnote 28 Although the lover's desire is only possible by a supernatural act of God, this act does not violate the structures of creation nor does it add new structures. Because of the ontological level of desire, there is no need for violations or additions. The supernatural gift of grace is at the same time supernatural – as a free gift of God – and natural, completing creation in a natural way.Footnote 29 The natural aspect of the seeker's desire is its specific function of the human will.

  3. C Both the seeker's and the ontological desire include necessity. They are tendencies or inclinations rather than choices. On the seeker's level, desire is conceived as an inherent mechanism of the human soul. The necessity of the ontological language, however, cannot be seen as a kind of such a mechanism of perfection. If so, we would necessarily desire at the lover's level, and that is not the case. The necessity on the ontological desire refers to the essence of our humanity. Only the lover's desire is voluntary, while it is the response to the experience of Love.

  4. D The ontological desire is the only one which is perceived as passive. The other two desires cannot be passive, because they are expressions of the will. This passiveness appears to be even more profound because of this desire's unknowability without divine intervention.

The ontological desire has some very peculiar characteristics. A passive desire, which can remain unveiled to human understanding, appears to be very strange. Here, the predominant psychological approach to desire of our time clashes with the perspective of patristic and medieval theology, in which profound psychological insights are ‘mingled’ with ontology.

The ontological perspective makes clear that desire can be a helpful instrument for the analysis of elements of systematic anthropology that are not primarily psychological. It is precisely the objective of the scholastic ontological approach to desire to analyse the relation between God and human beings at the most fundamental level. Only at this level can the distance between God and us be expressed adequately. The ontological approach reveals also the possibilities and structures which can bridge this distance; they are, so to speak, two sides of one coin. The essential or innate desire for God expresses our God orientated structure. If, at the ontological level, desire would be perceived to be neutral, if not negative, the encounter between God and human beings could not be the objective of creation. At the same time, this ontology helps to safeguard divine – and human – freedom in theology, thereby precluding the threat of a descent into natural theology.

The psychological approach on both the lover's and seeker's level is closely related to the ontological analysis. The orientation to God is related to the two powers of the human soul, knowledge and will: desire for knowledge to find the truth and desire for happiness to find the good reflect the fundamental orientation which humankind received with creation. However, the functioning of the will cannot produce the desire for God on a psychological level. The seeker's desire is not a desire for God, but an indication of deeper human structures. The seeker's desire does not achieve all the possibilities of human desire. That is why the lover's desire is needed to complete the psychological analysis. The voluntary choice of love is only possible by means of the liberating power of grace. The response to God's loving presence makes the ontological level experiential and knowable. So it is only in the lover's desire that the desire for God is achieved.

Desire and the ultimate capacity of human beings

The divine initiative toward yearning humanity is ‘God's seduction’, as Quinzá puts it.Footnote 30 A theology of desire presupposes a theology of grace. Scholastic authors, such as St Thomas and Duns Scotus, underline that revelation is a necessary condition not only for the fulfilling of the desire, but also for the knowledge of the innate appetite for God.Footnote 31 Under ‘revelation’ is understood the supernatural gift of God, that is grace. Knowledge of God and ourselves, so intimately connected, depends on the grace of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, therefore, is the key to the human desire for God.Footnote 32

In patristic theology, redemption by Jesus Christ is understood as participation in God, a principle already clearly formulated by Irenaeus of Lyons.Footnote 33 This participation is also called deification (theopoiesis) of humanity.Footnote 34 When Jesus Christ is the ultimate ‘imago Dei’, christology becomes the key to anthropology. The participation is a structure originating from classic christology, which is worked out in the doctrine of the union of Christ's two natures. In this traditional framework, Chalcedon also becomes decisive for anthropology. The unique union of divine and human nature in Jesus Christ requires that the anthropological structures have the ‘capacity’ to be unified with God. The theology of participation presuppose a man or woman that is ‘capax Dei’. The union with God – although in a different way than Christ – becomes therefore the ultimate destination of humankind. This destination is present at the ontological level by creation, but it can function at the lover's level only by Christ's salvation.

This understanding of Christ as the revelation of human capacities and possibilities offers a deeper insight in the desire for God. If we were to know only the ontological desire for God – a hypothetical situation, however – the difference and distance between Creator and creation would dominate our understanding. However, it is the preceding understanding of the person of Jesus Christ as divine and human that explains the desire in the first place as an ‘image’ element of the Creator. In the Logos becoming flesh God reveals the divine initiative to bridge the distance. The incarnation explains God's ‘yearning’, although not motivated by God's lack of self-sufficiency but by the divine willingness to love and to participate in creation.

The unique union of the divine and the human nature in Christ is not just the revelation of the giving God, but also a mirror of the heights to which the desire for God will take us. Fulfilment of the desire for God is also called ‘elevation’. Although ‘elevation’ sounds very ‘ultimate’ and is in a way reserved for what is called ‘glory’, Christian life in its entirety may be characterised by this desired union. Elevation is achieved within the concrete ‘dynamics of the soul’ or the psychological functioning of human life. Our knowing and our willing, our emotions and our body, are all included.

The integrating process of the desire for God

Activated by grace, the desire for God leads us toward the union with God. Living according to this desire demands a consecrated life. Once awakened by Love's presence, the desire for God offers a completely new understanding of the meaning of desire. The re-formation of human desire needs to be translated in new attitudes.Footnote 35 No more are any of our human desires mere lust, which may be satisfied in a rapid ego-trip. Once the desire for God is revealed, all the other desires are upgraded and taken seriously as ways in which our most fundamental desire can be present. Responding to the desire of God implies the ‘channelling’ work of integrating the strivings and drives of the human will in the perspective of the desire for God. As an example of this integrating process, I refer to Gregory of Nyssa's elaboration of what is called ‘asceticism’.

Gregory of Nyssa

In the article cited in the introduction, Sarah Coakley demonstrates the importance of Gregory of Nyssa's work for the reflection on desire in our time. Her presentation is firmly founded on rather recent and refreshing research on the work of the youngest of the Cappadocian fathers by Hart and others.Footnote 36 These studies of key texts of Gregory of Nyssa show clearly that Gregory's perception of humanity is closer to Paul's than to Plato's.

The reading of De virginitate by Sarah Coakley is in line with this interpretation. The surprising fact that a married person writes so positively on celibacy should be understood within the context of Gregory's view on the role of the different desires and inclinations which can be found in the Christian life. Gregory perceives the desire for God as the general or unified ‘stream’. Coakley:

It might be thought that Gregory intends this intensification of desire toward God as mutually exclusive with a sexually active life in marriage; but interestingly he repeats the same metaphor of the stream . . . precisely to explain how sex in marriage can be a ‘good irrigation’ provided it, too, is ordered in relation to God and so made ‘moderate’ in comparison with the intensified and unified stream that desire for God demands. It is not then to suppress passion that the treatise is written; but actually – as stated by Gregory at the very outset – precisely to ‘create passion’ for ‘the life according to excellence’.

‘Aiming’ or ‘channelling’ desires in the right way enables the desire for God to achieve its fullest expression. This type of asceticism shows how every level of desire can be integrated to give the desire for God the central function that it demands. In this conception of asceticism, the human body plays a positive role. The unifying power of the Spirit achieves this most intimate alliance on the concrete, daily level.

The psychological elements of Gregory's view on asceticism have received support from an unexpected source. Coakley shows that, in Freud's later works, the sublimation of the ‘erotic power’ became an important positive theme, precisely because of his growing insight in the social meaning of human sexuality. Although the support of Freud is an important element of Coakley's article, it appears to me that Gregory's perspective on human nature is very different to Freud's. Freudian sublimation and Gregorian channelling, although they offer an interesting overlap, are motivated differently. Whereas the social self-preservation of the Ego was Freud's motive behind his positive evaluation of sublimation, for Gregory it is the focus on God that has the unifying effect. The eccentricity of Gregory's anthropology is far more radical than Freud's. The Christian perspective of Gregory shows there is more freedom to choose and to love than in Freud's anthropology.

Body of Christ

The (at least) lifelong process of integration, includes the social aspect of desire as a necessary consequence. The metaphor of the body of Christ offers a very ‘natural’ image for the understanding of the social dimension of the unifying force of God's Spirit, channelling the different desires in the community into one ‘stream’. In this channelling of desires, there is a need for structures, institutes (like Gregory's ‘asceticism’), cultural expressions and so on.

Outlook

The traditional theological concepts of ‘desire’ lead us to many central loci of theology: the Trinity, creation and eschatology, salvation, grace and the Christian life – ethics and ecclesiology. Concluding this exploration, I will indicate what I see as important challenges for a contemporary theology of desire.

From the first section I want to mention the challenges of rediscovering the ontological perspective. In the narrative, psychological or historical languages which predominate in current theology, the ontological approach is an outcast. Because of that, however, we cannot really discuss the suppositions of these dominant languages in a more fundamental way. It is, for example, crucial to analyse the importance and consequences of freedom and choice, in order to speak adequately on the psychological level. Many modern psychological perspectives cannot really articulate human freedom because of the ontological consequences of their assumptions. In such a context ‘grace’ loses its meaning.

Theologians such as St Augustine and Gregory both used what we call ontology in a very natural way. Is it possible to leave these elements aside when we gratefully use their ascetic and psychological insights? This short exploration of desire shows that the way the ontological analysis functions within traditional theology can be profoundly relational. At least in this case, it is also open to experimental and psychological analysis. Just because of these two characteristics, it is worthwhile to explore further the possibilities of the ontological approach of desire within a theological approach.

In the second section, the priority of christology for anthropology and the focus on the two natures of Jesus Christ offer a challenging perspective which roots in the oldest Christian traditions. The desire for God urges us to think about the ontological, psychological and even corporal aspects of christology as the key to the understanding of human dynamics, individually and collectively. A theology of desire appears to take us in the opposite direction of the so-called ‘low christologies’ which blossomed in the last century. From this perspective, the traditional doctrine of Christ's two natures gives the impression of a completely ‘overstretched’ anthropology. It is not so difficult to see that here anthropology is dictating christology. Although I think that the orientation on the tradition of desire requires a correction, this does not necessary mean that all results of modern approaches in christology, especially those of human sciences, are worthless. On the contrary, these should be tried out in order to see if they can function in this opposite orientation.

The last section, especially the contributions of Coakley and Quinzá, makes clear that a theology of desire offers various interesting possibilities to participate in contemporary debate. I will mention here only two approaches: the ascetics of desire (A) and the role of desire in mission (B).

(A) Both Coakley and Quinzá have an ascetic focus in their approach to desire. Ascetics offers the opportunity to relate to contemporary culture in a genuine and engaged way. The mix of ethics and spirituality, present in asceticism, appears to offer an opportunity to avoid moralist discourses, which are a trap for nearly all Christians and churches. Coakley shows that the double attitude of recognition and (self-)criticism can prevent a moralistic attitude without becoming vague. Quinzá's approach is more radical, focusing on the search behind the so-called desires of our global societies and the salvation of humanity's real desire. Nevertheless, the author presents this reorientation as a pedagogic process with clear ascetic characteristics.Footnote 37 Both authors respond to the great need for a critical understanding of the ego-centred lifestyle on one hand and the importance of the spiritual perspective on the other, both characteristics of culture nowadays.

(B) Quinzá's analysis of the ‘culture of desire’ also offers challenging thoughts about mission. Because it is only in Love that desire can find its fulfilment, Christian communities have a clear message to our culture. According to Quinzá, the most fundamental human needs are not addressed within the dominant culture. He therefore proposes a ‘Christian culture of desire’ in which the real desires of human beings are ‘saved’.Footnote 38

In a more hidden way, there is also a missionary dimension in Coakley's approach. She assumes that the specific Christian understanding of Gregory's ‘channelling desires’ can be communicated with people who do not share his beliefs. In other words, the healthy effects of Christian asceticism should be accessible to anyone. By means of its general and fundamental foundation in anthropology, desire opens the door for a debate on anthropological perspectives and their consequences.Footnote 39

References

1 Lleó, Xavier Quinzá, La cultura del deseo y la seducción de Dios (Maliaňo: Sal Terrae, 1993)Google Scholar and Pasión y radicalidad: Posmodernidad y vida consagrada, (Madrid: San Pablo, 2004).

2 Sarah Coakley, ‘Pleasure Principles. Toward a Contemporary Theology of desire’, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, 33/2 (autumn 2005).

3 Figura, Michael, Der Anruf der Gnade: Über die Beziehung des Menschen zu Gott nach Henri de Lubac (Einsiedeln: Johannes Verlag, 1979)Google Scholar. Note 15 on p. 249 offers an impressive list of literature on ‘desiderium naturale visionis Dei’.

4 Eef Dekker gives a nice summary of this debate in ‘Human Being and the Natural Desire for God: Reflections on the Natural and the Supernatural’, in Sarot, Marcel and Stoker, Wessel (eds.), Religion and the Good Life (Assen: Royal van Gorcum, 2004)Google Scholar. An evaluation of the theology of H. de Lubac can be found in Alfred Vanneste Nature et grace dans la théologie occidentale: Dialogue avec H. de Lubac (Leuven: University Press/Peters, 1996), pp. 251–92. Kolakowsky, Leszek, God Owes us Nothing: A Brief Remark on Pascal's Religion and on the Spirit of Jansenism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 102–10Google Scholar, even argues that the papal bull Unigenitus (1713), a symbol of the theology of the Catholic Reform, signifies the victory of ‘semi-Pelagian’ theology in Roman Catholic doctrine and indicates, therefore, the rift with traditional Augustinian theology of grace.

5 This name, ‘a two stocks theology’, is used by H. de Lubac himself in his Petite catéchèse sur nature et grâce (Paris: Fayard, 1980), pp. 29–30.

6 There is a lot written on the theology of Cajetan. I refer here to de Lubac, H.. Mystère du surnaturel (Paris: Aubier, 1965), pp. 26–31Google Scholar, 98–102, etc., Figura, Anruf, pp. 151–4, and Alfaro, Juan, Lo natural y lo sobrenatural: Estudio histórico desde Santo Tomas hasta Cayetano (Madrid: Publicaciones del instituto Francisco Suarez, 1952)Google Scholar.

7 In this text, I will try to avoid the use of the term ‘natural desire’ or desiderium naturale, because it is a confusing term, as I will argue later on. I think it is possible to integrate what is meant by ‘natural desire’ in the following analysis of the three levels of desire.

8 As in Psalms 25 and 42, but above all in the Song of Songs (in the allegoric interpretation). Paul expresses his desire to be ‘with Christ’ (Phil. 1:23).

9 1 John 4:8.

10 Alfaro, Lo natural y lo sobrenatural, pp. 39–41. Duns Scotus, however, gives a certain priority to will, ibid., p. 43.

11 Bochet, Isabelle, Saint Augustin et le désir de Dieu (Paris: Études augustiniennes, 1982), pp. 107–10Google Scholar.

12 Pascal, Blaise, for example, wrote that the search for happiness is even the motive for suicide, L. Lafuma (ed.), Œuvres complètes (Paris: Seuil, 1963)Google Scholar, Pensées, fragment 148, p. 519. For more on Pascal's perspective and the desire for God, see Klaas Bom, ‘Pascal en het verlangen naar God’, in Nico den Bok and Arjan Plaisier (eds.), Bijna goddelijk gemaakt: Gedachten over de menselijke gerichtheid op God, (Zoetermeer: Boekencentrum, 2005), pp. 178–99.

13 Cf. Bochet, Saint Augustin, chs 1–3, where the author analyses different terms and images of this abuse of desire used by St Augustine.

14 See Figura, Anruf, pp. 294–5, where De Lubac's thoughts on this point are summarised.

15 Concerning Gregory of Nyssa, see Peter Phan, Grace and the Human Condition (Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1988), pp. 177–8 and 182. Concerning St Augustine, see van Bavel, J., ‘De weg naar God volgens Augustinus’, in Hutsebaut, D. and Corveleyn, J. (eds.), Over de grens: De religieuze behoefte kritisch onderzocht, (Leuven: Universitaire Pers Leuven, 1987), pp. 188–9Google Scholar.

16 Although the desire is transformed in another mode, eternity is also full of moving Godwards. See Rowan Williams, ‘Macrina's Deathbed Revisited: Gregory of Nyssa on Mind and Passion’, in G. H. Stead, L. R. Wickham, C. P. H. Bammel and E. C. D. Hunter, Christian Faith and Greek Philosophy in Late Antiquity (Leiden: Brill, 1993), pp. 227–46.

17 See Dupré, Louis, Passage to Modernity (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 1993)Google Scholar.

18 Vanneste, Nature et grâce, pp. 19–20 and 161–83.

19 Cajetan's main problem with Scotus’ approach of the natural, innate appetite is to be located in the so-called ‘principle of plenitude’ (see A.O. Lovejoy), see Alfaro, Lo natural y lo sobrenatural, chs 2 and 3. Scotus’ clear refusal of this principle is explained by Veldhuis, Henri, ‘Hoog aangelegd. Duns Scotus' persoonsbegrip in de Proloog van de Ordinatio’, in Beck, Andreas and Veldhuis, Henri (eds), Geloof geeft te denken: Opstellen over de theologie van Johannes Duns Scotus (Assen: Koninklijke van Gorcum, 2005), pp. 75–82Google Scholar.

20 Alfaro, Lo natural y lo sobrenatural, pp. 242–3. See also Figura, Anruf, p. 275.

21 See Figura, Anruf, pp. 258–76. and Veldhuis, ‘Hoog’, p. 81, who uses the term ‘natural’ in the significance of essential, as De Lubac does (Figura, Anruf, p. 264).

22 See Dekker, ‘Human Being’, pp. 273–7, where the author explains that an essential directedness toward God does not destroy human freedom.

23 See Figura, Anruf, p. 265 and pp. 276–82 (‘desiderium inefficax’) and Veldhuis, ‘Hoog’, pp. 78–80.

24 See Figura, Anruf, pp. 283–7, and Alfaro, Lo natural y lo sobrenatural, ch. 1 (pp. 36–8, etc.).

25 As Scotus puts it in his Ordinatio Prologus, par. 32: ‘concedo Deum esse finem naturalem hominis, sed non naturaliter adipiscendum sed supernaturaliter’. See Krop, H.A., De status van de theologie volgens Johannes Duns Scotus: De verhouding tussen theologie en metafysica, (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1987), p. 119Google Scholar.

26 See Veldhuis, ‘Hoog’, pp. 81–2. I could not find this kind of clear statement on the effect of grace in De Lubac's keywork Le Mystère du surnaturel (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 2000). De Lubac is, on the other hand, preoccupied with the question as to whether the so-called desiderium naturale can oblige God to realise the ‘visio Dei’, in which case grace is no longer a free gift.

27 See Alfaro, Lo natural y lo sobrenatural, pp. 60–3. For Scotus on the act of love, freedom of will and human merit in Lectura I, 17, see A. Vos, H. Veldhuis, E. Dekker, N.W. den Bok and A.J. Beck (eds), Duns Scotus on Divine Love: Texts and Commentary on Goodness and Freedom, God and Humans (Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate, 2003).

28 See Alfaro, Lo natural y lo sobrenatural, pp. 51–4.

29 Veldhuis therefore prefers to use ‘supernatural desire’, ‘Hoog’, p. 81.

30 Here, Quinzá refers to older traditions, see for example Pascal, Blaise, Lettres Provinciales (Paris: Garnier, 1965), p. 359Google Scholar.

31 On the epistemological implications of the desire for God, see Dekker, ‘Human Being’, pp. 275–9.

32 See Antonie Vos, ‘Betrokken op God: Aspecten van de christelijke antropologie in historisch perspectief’, in Nico den Bok and Arjan Plaisier (eds), Bijna goddelijke gemaakt, pp. 45–6 and 60–4.

33 Cf. Phan, Grace, ch. 2

34 See Dekker, ‘Human Being’, p. 269. The creation to God's image (Gen. 1) and the Logos, becoming Flesh (John 1) offer the two principal references from the Bible that inspired the theologians of the first centuries, see Juan L. Ruiz de la Peňa, El don de Dios: Antropología teológica especial (Maliaňo: Sal Terrae, 1991), p. 268.

35 See Quinzá's book, Pasión y radicalidad.

36 Martin Laird, ‘Under Solomon's Tutelage: The Education of Desire in the Homilies on the Song of Songs’, Modern Theology, 18/4 (October 2002), pp. 507–25, offers a summary of the recent research on the writings of Gregory by Williams, Hart, Laird, Behr and others. It is noteworthy that some of these authors perceive their approach as an alternative to the ontological interpretation of Gregory's theology by Hans Urs von Balthasar.

37 See La cultura del deseo, pp. 24 and 27–31. This is elaborated in his book Pasión y radicalidad.

38 La cultura del deseo, p. 23.

39 I would like to thank the Protestant Church in the Netherlands for the sabbatical leave that enabled me to write this article. Also, I thank Eef Dekker, Antoon Vos and Hans Wierenga for their comments on earlier drafts of this article.