Another podcast no one wants! In this week’s episode, after some talk about the sleep schedules of newborn infants, we return to some of Jon’s thoughts about the problem of the supernatural. We begin with Lonergan’s retrieval of Thomas Aquinas’s theory of action and in particular Thomas’s account of “extrinsic predication.” Then we consider how this account of action is applied to God and Robyn raises some questions about whether or not that works. Jon suggests that what Lonergan calls the “theorem of the supernatural” is at work both in the theology of grace, but also in an account of divine transcendence and God’s providence. Indeed, the theorem at work in the latter can be an analogue for the former in a speculative theology of grace. Jon then considers human freedom as one of the effects of God’s ad extra agency and the odd, deflationary implication of philosophically affirming the universal efficacy of God’s agency: God’s action doesn’t seem to make any difference. Robyn wonders what this means for miracles and Jon denies that “miracle” is a philosophical category. Then Jon spells out his account of the fundamental ambiguity that philosophical ontology faces using Sartre’s Being and Nothingness and Blondel’s Action (1893) as examples, turning back to consider human freedom in light of it. Does our freedom have a fundamental meaning/purpose or does it not? Then we turn to consider the products of human freedom: cultures and their inextricable place in posing the modern problem of the supernatural.

TITLES REFERENCED:

Blondel, Maurice. Action (1893): Essay on a Critique of Life and a Science of Practice. Translated by Oliva Blanchette. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame, 1984.

Larsen, Sean. "The Politics of Desire: Two Readings of Henri De Lubac on Nature and Grace." Modern Theology 29, no. 3 (July 2013): 279–310.

Lonergan, Bernard. Grace and Freedom: Operative Grace in the Thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. Edited by Frederick E. Crowe and Robert M. Doran Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Being and Nothingness: A Phenomenological Essay on Ontology. Translated by Hazel Estella Barnes. New York, NY: Pocket Books, 1966.

We have a Patreon! Check out the page at www.patreon.com/systematically

Please consider making a much-appreciated donation. As always, your support is greatly appreciated!

Our theme music is “14 Ghosts II” by Nine Inch Nails, available at archive.org/details/nineinchnails_ghosts_I_IV

“14 Ghosts II” is used under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license. We would like to thank Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails for the use of this track.

Follow and chat with us on Twitter @SystematicPod

Email us at [email protected]

Subscribe and Review us on iTunes: Systematically Podcast

Lastly, if you enjoy our conversations, please share them with your friends!