On the grace and humanity of Jesus.
Translated by Joseph W. Evans.
- [New York] Herder and Herder [1969]
- 144 pages, 21 cm.
Translation of De la grâce et de l'humanité de Jésus.
Includes bibliographical references.
From the Virginal Conception to the Death on the Cross -- The Heaven of the Soul and the "Here-Bellow" of the SOul in the God-Man -- The Supraconscious Divinized by the Beatific Vision in the Soul of Christ -- In What Sense the Habitual Grace of Christ Was Unlimited in its Order -- The Infused Science of Christ -- Questions Concerning the Infused Science Itself -- Additional Questions -- From Adolescence to the Death on the Cross
One of the most controverted questions in modern theology –from the modernist crisis to the present– is the nature of the consciousness of Christ. In Jesus, the latest book of Jacques Maritain's approach is via Thomism, but as is always the case with his serious work, it is the richness, reverence, and depth of his own thought that indelibly marks the book. Essentially, On the Grace and Humanity of Jesus is Maritain's reinterpretation of Thomas' thesis on the impossibility of growth in grace in Christ and God-man. To Maritain Luke's unmistakable declaration that Christ grew in wisdom, age, and grace is prior in truth and content to Thomas' denial of the possibility of such growth. In On the Grace and Humanity of Jesus Maritain has combined his basic intuition with modern psychological knowledge in a theory of the consciousness of Christ which retains Christ's recognition of his own divinity, but allows concurrently for the humanly graded growth and development of this knowledge –a theory that retains Christ's participation in the beatific vision, but allows for a sphere of Christic consciousness that functions freely and humanly in the world. On the Grace and Humanity of Jesus, in short, deals with the complex of problems that arise when one professes Jesus to God and man. The trend in contemporary theology is to elaborate upon what it means that Jesus is man –a needed exercise, since one so long unattended to– but it is the larger problem of God and man which is the background of all Christian speculation, and which will perdure when trends have turned into their opposites. It is in the literature of this larger problem that On the Grace and Humanity of Jesus belongs.