Thoughts about Hart’s “You Are Gods”

Last updated on: August 20, 2022 at 2:27 pm by Roger E. Olson

Thoughts about Hart’s “You Are Gods” 2022-08-20T14:27:04-05:00 Roger E. Olson

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.

Thoughts about David Bentley Hart’s “Introduction” to “You Are Gods”

Hart, an Eastern Orthodox Christian and general Christian intellectual, here advances a stringent critique of the whole Western Christian tradition of separating nature and grace, the natural from the supernatural. He complains that the old “two-tier system” of nature and grace of neo-Thomism is making a comeback in spite of the 20th century’s “Eastward turn” of Catholic nouvelle theologie which was based on a vision of nature and grace as belonging together intrinsically. This “comeback” he decries as unchristian.

After nodding somewhat uncomfortably to gnosticism, Hart writes that “According to Christian scripture, we live in the aftermath of an intrinsically divine reality’s alienation from its source, not in an order of nature that is the direct work of God’s creative will, perfectly innocent in itself, into which we were precipitated from the unnatural ‘superelevation’ accorded us by an extraordinary grace at the inception of humanity’s spiritual history.” (xv)

Hart critiques gnosticism for making this “estrangement of creation” too radical, such that nature is viewed as alien to God. Against that, he avers that “whatever possesses a supernatural destiny must be supernatural—must be divine—‘naturally’ while anything truly outside the sphere of this natural divinity…could never be joined to God.” (xvi)

The upshot is that, for Hart, Christianity’s vision of nature is that it has no real existence in and of itself but possesses any actuality only through supernature (grace). “God is all that is. Whatever is not God exists as becoming divine….” (xviii)

Well, these assertions certainly grab attention! I have already read Chapter One: “Waking the Gods: Theosis as Reason’s Natural End” so I have some idea where Hart is going. But, surely, only the whole book with all its essays will reveal it fully.

These claims remind me of Hans Urs von Balthasar’s assertion that there is no such thing, and never has been, as “pure nature” devoid of grace. For both Hart and Balthasar, apparently, grace goes “all the way down.” Nothing that has being is alien to God and all that has being is being drawn by grace, which is supernatural, toward union with God.

Fine. So far, so good. But three problems jump out to the naïve reader like myself. First, does Hart fall too close to gnosticism when he says that “God saves creatures by removing extrinsic, physical (that is, non-moral) impediments to their natural union with him” (xviii), and second, is Hart guilty of “monism,” the idea that all is one substance and that one substance is God? If so, how can this account for the fallenness of creation and for the existence of “physical impediments…?” Finally, third, what room is there in monism for creaturely free will?

As always, we will have to wait for the answers until we read more. Here, in this Introduction, Hart has simply whetted our (theology nerds’) theological appetites.

But allow me to add my own “footnote” to Hart’s Introduction (and maybe to his whole book). What about creatio ex nihilo? If God created the entire universe by his word, out of nothing, then how can we avoid thinking of it all as in some sense God? But, then, how can we avoid thinking of evil as an illusion?

Well…Hart admits that one chapter of this book might have been called either “Studies in Vedantic Christianity” or “Neoplatonic Christianity.”

If Hart were not Hart but an esoteric thinker like, say, Rudolf Steiner, I would not be interested in this book. I’m interested because he is Hart and presumably not an esoteric Christian like Steiner. Let’s continue on.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

August 18, 2022

Why I Will Never Become Eastern Orthodox

Next Post

August 24, 2022 “Waking the Gods” Thoughts about Chapter One of “You Are Gods”

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Against Liberal Theology Uncategorized

Select a Month November 2026 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 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Genesis figure "walked with God and was no more, for God took him"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Abraham Lamech Seth Enoch