Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
There Can Be No End Apart From God

There Can Be No End Apart From God

Last updated on: March 21, 2017 at 7:54 am by Henry Karlson

There Can Be No End Apart From God 2017-03-21T07:54:07-05:00 Henry Karlson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Augustine image in the Lateran, [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

When we look at Augustine, we note that for him, any concept of a humanity closed in on itself as its end is itself only seen coming from the City of Man, the City of the Damned. There are two possible ends, those who unnaturally close themselves from God and so try to establish themselves as an end in and of itself, or those who realize their proper existence and natural goodness resides with God. Those who posit a pure nature which humanity can attain to by itself apart from God are following the lead of Satan, for it suggests that we can become gods unto ourselves and find our own happiness within ourselves, attached to our notion of who and what we are closed off from all others, including and especially God. “Actually, I think I have said enough on the really great and difficult problems concerning the origin of the world, the soul, and the human race,” Augustine begins in Book XV of the City of God.[3] “In regard to mankind I made a division. On the one side are those who live according to man; on the other, those who live according to God. And I have said that, in a deeper sense, we may speak of two cities or human societies, the destiny of one being an eternal kingdom under God while the doom of the other is eternal punishment along with the Devil.”[4] Augustine entirely dismantles the notion of a pure nature for humanity which has humanity aim for humanity as its natural and good end; such a position would end up damned, because it is closed off from God, the source of beatitude. To be sure, he agrees that there is a limited good found in humanity, so that there are good things found in human activity, in human civilization: “Nonetheless, it is wrong to deny that the aims of human civilization are good, for this is the highest end that mankind of itself can achieve.”[5] But, contra the notion of a pure nature which is good apart from God, Augustine rightfully states that whatever good that humanity attains from itself, it is good because it is from God. “The things of earth are not merely good; they are undoubtedly gifts from God.”[6] The problem is that they are relative goods, and if humanity closes itself in on any such relative good instead of the source of goodness, it sins and closes itself from beatitude and the higher goods which they left behind. “But, of course, if those who get such goods in the city of men are reckless about the better goods of the City of God, in which there is to be the ultimate victory of an eternal, supreme, and untroubled peace, if men so love the goods of the earth as to believe that these are the only goods or if they love them more than the goods they know to be better, then the consequence is inevitable: misery and more misery.”[7]

And so earlier, this was asserted by Augustine, when he wrote:

When a man lives ‘according to man’ and not ‘according to God’ he is like the Devil. For, even an angel had to live according to God and not according to an angel if he were to remain steadfast in the truth, speaking the truth out of God’s grace and not lying out of his own weakness. The same Apostle elsewhere says of man: ‘Yet if God’s truth has abounded through my lie.’ Notice that he says ‘my lie’ and ‘God’s truth.’ So, then, when a man lives according to the truth, he lives not according to himself but according to God. For it was God who said : ‘I am the truth.’[8]

Humanity is either closed in on itself, and so follows the path of the devil, or it is open to God and receives the eternal bounty of God’s deifying grace, grace established in the incarnation of the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. The notion of “pure nature” apart from such openness to God is to neglect the reality of what that nature is to be, what God has made ourselves to be. Thus, to Augustine, it is even a lie to suggest humanity can exist and thrive and find any happiness apart from God. Our truth, our essential truth, is itself not from ourselves but God: “Rather, man has been constituted in truth that he meant to live not according to himself but to Him who made him – that is, he was meant to do the will of God rather than his own. It is a lie not to live as a mean was created to live.”[9]

Thus, we have the paradox of being given a good nature, and with it, a good foundation for our existence, but it is not good for us if we hold on to it as the foundation of our happiness. We all want happiness but if we try to find it in ourselves we do not get it, so that natural happiness apart from God cannot be true happiness, and to suggest such is to suggest a contradiction in terms. Hence, as Augustine points out, there is a paradox before us. “Why this paradox, except that the happiness of man can come not from himself but only from God, and that to live according to oneself is to sin, and to sin is to lose God? “[10] Once again, only by understanding what our nature is – to know it is meant to be empty of all self-attachment, do we truly understand the diabolical aspects of the notion of a “pure nature” which is said to exist independent from God. It is self-theosis without power, and so without a happy end. But, the concept is founded on the good principle that our nature as it is made by God is good, and that it was made so that it’s end could be designated by God’s loving freedom and not an end which is established by any demand we make for God.

Truly, does this not all suggest what we can learn in the cross, in the revelation of God? When we attach ourselves to ourselves, that self leads us away from God for it creates a barrier between God and us. There is no salvation, no happiness, to be found until we put that falsely constructed self which comes about through our attachment and closing-in-upon the self on the cross, to let it be crucified and perish, so that in dying to the self, we can load all the sin which we have seeded in through such self-attachment upon Christ and by his mediation find ourselves purified by his fiery love, a love which opens us up and them allows us to grow in God once again.

[1] To be sure, the question and discussion of the category of a “pure nature” goes back before the 20th century, but theologians such as Henri de Lubac wrote on why they thought the concept, as it had developed in the recent past, was unacceptable; others pushed back, thinking that they were defending theological tradition when they did so, ignoring the fact that it was mere theological speculation and opinion instead of traditional doctrine. Limbo, for example, would make no sense if the category of pure nature was denied, and so those who taught limbo would have to defend some conception of pure nature, while those who denied pure nature will be able to see limbo itself as a theological dead-end.

[2] Once the human order was able to be established in this form, it was not difficult to eliminate the sacred from the world and to turn everything secular, so that the concept of pure nature lends itself to a theological secularization of the Christian faith.

[3] Saint Augustine, City of God Books VIII – XVI. Trans. Gerald G. .Walsh SJ and Grace Monahan OSU (New York: Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1952), 413 [XV.1].

[4] Ibid., 413 [XV.1].

[5] Ibid., 419 [XV.4].

[6] Ibid., 420 [XV.4].

[7] Ibid., 420 [XV.4].

[8] Ibid. 353-4 [XIV.4]

[9] Ibid., 354 [XIV.4].

[10] Ibid., 354 [XIV.4].

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook:

A Little Bit of Nothing

Previous Post

March 20, 2017

We Must All Work Out Our Own Salvation

Next Post

March 22, 2017 To The Stars!

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion Abraham abuse Aesthetics AI Aliens Ambrose Ancestors and Everything Andrew Angels Animals Anne Anthony Antisemitism apologetics Apophatic Apostle John Aquinas Artificial Intelligence Asanga Ascension Asceticism Assumption Atheism Attachment Augustine Authority Avarice Balthasar Baptism Beauty Biden birthright citizenship Bishops Black History Books Buddhism Bulgakov Byzantine Calendar C.S. Lewis Calcidius Catholic Catholicism Catholicism Celibacy Charity Chastity children Chrismation Christ Christmas Christology Church Climate Change Common Good Communion Confession Confirmation Conscience Constantine conventions conversion councils Covid Creation Cross Dead Death Death Penalty Debate Deception Demagogues Demons Desert Monks Desert Mothers Desire destruction development Dialogue Dignity Dionsyius Dionysius Discipline Diversity Division Doctor Who doctrine dogma Dormition Dualism Easter Easter Series Ecumenical Councils Ecumenism Education Election Empathy Environment Error Eschatology eschaton Eternity Ethics Eucharist Evangelism Eve Evil evolution Faeries Faith Fear femininity Ficino Florence Florensky Folktale Fools Forgiveness Freedom Future gender Gentile Gentiles Glory Gnostic God gods Good Samaritan Goodness Gospel Government Grace Great Fast Guns Hate healing Health Heaven Hell Hellenism Heresy Hierarchy Hildegard Hinduism History Holiness Holy Spirit Holy Week Hope Horror Human rights humanity Humility hypocrisy ICE icon icons Identification Identity Idol II Nicea Immigration incarnation Individualism Informal Reflections Inklings Intention Inter-Religious Interfaith Internet Interpretation Intrinsic evil Irenaeus Islam Israel Jacob Jerome Jesus Jews John Chrysostom John of Damascus John the Baptist Joseph Judaism justice Justification kenosis Kindnesss Kingdom of God Kingdom of Heaven Law Law of Moses Lazarus Leaf by Niggle Lent Lenten Reflection Liberation Theology Lies Life Listen Literature Liturgy locutions Logic Logos Love Marriage Martyrs Mary Mass Maximos The Confessor Meanness Meditation Mercy Middle Path Migrants Mind Miracles Miriam Morals Moses Movies Music Muslims Myths Names Nationalism Native Americans New Year Nicea Nicholas Nothing Novatian Obedience Occam's Razor Ordination Origen Original Sin Orthodox orthopraxis Pagans Palamas Palm Sunday Paradise Paschaltide Paul Peace Pentecost person Peter piety PKD Plato pluralism Plurality Poem Poetry Poiltics Politics Poor Pope Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV Post Office Prayer Pride Pro-life Prodigal Son propaganda Prophecy Prophets Providence Putin Racism Reading Reason Reflection Refugees Relationships Religion Religion Series Religious Liberty Repent Republicans Rest Resurrection Rich Rites Russia Sacraments Saints Salvation Salvian Santa Science Scripture Self-Giving Sexuality Sibyl Sick Silence Sin Singlehood Social Justice Society Sodom Solovyov Speculations Spiritual Reflection St. Cyril of Alexandria St. Justin Martyr Suffering Sunday of the Paralytic Man Sunday of the Samaritan Woman Superhero Supreme Court Teaching Technology Thanksgiving The Father the Universe Theological Reflection Theology Theosis Theotokos Thomas Timaeus Time Tolerenace Tolkien Tradition Transfiguration Trinity Trump Truth Uncategorized Unity Universities USCCB Value Vatican II Vegetarian Vices Violence Virtue Vocations War Water Welcome Wisdom Womanhood Women Work World View Worship Writing Zacchaeus

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz