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The author considers the ongoing significance of the grace-nature distinction for systematic theology, the role the distinction has made historically, and current debates on its validity. He proposes that two developments advanced by Bernard Lonergan, the scale of values and the four-point hypothesis, can reinvigorate the distinction and ground new developments in systematic theology for the future. Keywords Aquinas, Augustine, grace-nature debate, Bernard Lonergan, Henri de Lubac, Karl Rahner, scale of values, systematic theology, trinitarian relations, The question of the grace-nature distinction is an enduring theme for theological investigation. The implications of this distinction stretch across a range of theological discourses concerning, for example, the relationship [...]

Questions and Challenges Within the Christian community there are many who are skeptical about expanding our understanding of God's grace. Some are convinced that the expansion of God's grace is [...]

Amos 5:6-7, 10-15 Psalm 90:12-19 Hebrews 4:12-16 Mark 10:17-31 In true Lutheran fashion, today's readings lay bare the themes of law and grace. Amos is concerned with the law. He [...]

A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. 'Give glory to God by telling the truth,' they said. 'We know this man is a sinner.' He replied, [...]

Transformation has become almost a cliche. Everything needs to be transformed: individual lives, cultures, economics, societies ... everything. But it is not often that God or grace are named in [...]

The best way to analyze charismatic experience is under the rubric of mysticism. Strictly speaking, the categorial content of these experiences counts neither for nor against their spiritual authenticity.

Kung's book, 'Justification,' is the occasion for Rahner to clarify the relationship of faith and love, to banish the notion of meriting grace by faith, and to show how christology conserves a graced creation after the fall.

This theoretical analysis of nature and grace necessitated by advances in philosophy and history improves on the scholastics' theory and makes significant contributions when combined with metaphysical anthropology.

Applying Aquinas' notion of the incarnational nature of grace to the question of sacramental efficacy harmonizes otherwise dualistic theories and clarifies the relationship between sacraments and their subjects.

Nature and grace are both equally gifts from God, according to St. James. Topics discussed include alchemy, sudden enlightenment or understanding, Proust's 'stereoscopic vision,' the middle voice, and the union of the inner and the outer.

Theravada Buddhism stresses spiritual self-sufficiency but also allows for grace from above. The tradition recognizes that redemptive gifts can come from external sources, but locates responsibility in the recipient's readiness rather than in a supernatural power.

The three Graces in Greek mythology - Aglaia (radiance), Euphrosyne (joy), and Thalia (fruitfulness) - are discussed. Their meanings and manifestations in classical antiquity and in Renaissance Italy are considered.

Spiritual aspects of beauty and the sublime in art are explored. Thomas Aquinas suggests that wholeness, harmony and radiance are needed to achieve transcendent beauty. The hexagram Pi (Grace) from the I Ching is also discussed.

'God, in your grace, transform the world' is an assembly theme in the form of a prayer. But what would happen if that prayer were answered? Our immediate reaction might [...]

We look to God for the strength, wisdom and courage to change the world. We pray to God to renew our hope and nourish our spirits so that we might [...]

In the light of his theology of grace Rahner concludes that mystical experiences are not of a higher nature than other Christian experiences of God in terms of content, but represent a unique natural mode for such experience.

Assesses the relative merits of two concepts of grace (actual and habitual) to describe worship and the sacraments to the modern world.

The presence of justifying grace in those outside explicit Christianity does not render the universal missionary task of the church superfluous. Grace always seeks to express itself in its richest concrete incarnation.

While agreeing with la nouvelle Theologie's critique of an extrinsic view of nature/grace, Rahner demonstrates the inability of that approach to insure the unexactedness of grace. Rahner concludes with his own theory.

For Rahner the Immaculate Conception is the concrete realization of the fundamental truth of the undialectical preeminence of grace over guilt.

Acts which have no pay off in this life reveal the infinite depths of our spirit where we glimpse the supernatural and begin to experience grace.