OUR LIGHT AND OUR SALVATION Blessed Antonio Rosmini’s Supernatural Anthropology Edited and Explained J. Anthony Dewhirst Bible quotations, unless otherwise noted, from “New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Anthony Dewhirst First Published 2010 by THE ROSMINIAN INSTITUTE OF CHARITY St Mary’s, Derryswood, Wonersh, Guildford, Surrey GU5 0RA, United Kingdom. Printed by Short Run Press Limited, Bittern Road, Sowton Industrial Estate, Exeter EX2 7LW, United Kingdom.uk FRONT COVER: Bust of Antonio Rosmini by Luigi Fornara. Public Gardens by Lago Maggiore, opposite Casa Bolongaro, Stresa. BACK COVER: Casa Bolongaro, Stresa.
Contents Page Contents 3 Foreword 5 Abbreviations 7 Introduction 9 1. Nature and Supernature 16 2. Deiform and Triniform Grace 32 4. The Holy Spirit 51 5.
On Mystical Theology 74 6. Made in the Image and Likeness of God 79 7. Life before the Fall 94 8. Our Sorry State 117 9.
The Transfusion of Original Sin 131 10. Signs and Symbols 151 11. The Possibility of Redemption 163 12. The Sacraments before and after Christ 179 14.
The Sacraments of the Old Covenant 197 15. The Sacramental Character of the New Covenant 204 16. The Sacrament of Baptism 217 17. The Sacrament of Confirmation 229 18.
The Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist (1) 242 3 19. The Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist (2) 261 Afterword 281 Appendix 1. A Review of External Signs in the Old Covenant 283 Appendix 2. Rosmini’s Philosophical Explanation of the Real 308 Presence Bibliography 315 Index of Biblical References 317 Index of Names 320 General Index 324 4 Foreword Firstly, I need to say something about the subtitle of this book.
The Supernatural Anthropology was not the only book which Rosmini wrote on theology. There are several others among which are one on Theological Language and another which is a Commentary on the Introduction to St John’s Gospel. Rosmini did not complete either of these books due to various causes which included the many other tasks on hand, and also ill health which resulted in his early death. These books deserve to be treated separately and the present book is long enough already.
The Supernatural Anthropology is in two volumes and has never been published in English. This would require extensive work and hopefully one day it will see the light. Meanwhile, I have endeavoured to extract from it the main topics of interest without some of the detail which accompanies them. I have also removed quotations from the Fathers of the Church to the end of the chapters.
References are given in the main text; in this way the main text is simplified somewhat and they can be read as desired. However, I have kept references to St Thomas in the text to show the conformity of Rosmini’s thought to the great Master apart from the intrinsic value of the quotations. Some readers may prefer the use of inclusive language: I regret this is not always possible and would lead to lack of precision in the text. There are two Appendices.
Appendix 1 deals with what Rosmini calls the ‘instruc- tive signs’ of the Old Covenant which foreshadowed the realities to come with the Incarnation and the New Covenant of Jesus Christ. This section deserves to be included in the book if only to show the extraordinary thoroughness of Rosmini’s treatment of the Scriptures. As regards Rosmini’s extensive use of the Scriptures, there are some wonderful passages of spiritual interpretation including, The Woman at the Well (Jn 4), Jesus’ conversation with Philip (Jn 14) and Rosmini’s comments on St Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Appendix 2 deals with Rosmini’s philosophical approach to the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
This might prove too much for some readers and so I have relegated it to its present position. I thought of subtitling the book ‘An Anthology’ but it is certainly not just extracts nor a straightforward translation. In this regard I have made extensive use of Fr William Lockhart’s translation written in 1886, the manuscript of which lies in the archives at Stresa. It has been computarised from my typed script (1975) but not published.
Moreover, in this present book there is much editing and commentary on my part. Maybe ‘A Review’ would fit the bill. I leave it to readers to assign the genre! My grateful thanks to my seasoned proof-reader Janet Blackman. Alas, Norma Platts who has provided such valuable help in the past was unable to help at the present time due to ill health.
Thanks also to Nigel Cave who provided the pictures for the cover. Anthony Dewhirst St Mary’s, Derryswood 1 May 2010. 5 Abbreviations Translations and references to English translations in square brackets, thus: […. Antonio Rosmini, Introduction to his Life and Teaching Cleary Antropologia in servizio della scienza morale AM Antropologia soprannaturale AS A Vision for Challenging Times JAD Catechism of the Catholic Church CCC Concilium Tridentinum Conc.
Delle cinque piaghe della Santa Chiesa CP Durham Translations Durham Edizione Critica Ediz. Epistolario Completo EC History and Spirit De Lubac Introduzione alla filosofia Introd. La lettura biblica di Rosmini ne “l’introduzione del Vangelo secondo Giovanni Commentata” Losacco L’introduzione del Vangelo secondo Giovanni commentata IVG Nuovo saggio sull'origine delle Idee NS Principi della scienza morale Principi Summa Theologica ST New International Version [of the Bible] NIV The Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version NRSV The Jerusalem Bible JB The New Jerusalem Bible NJB (Article = art.) 7 Introduction Rosmini began writing the Antropologia soprannaturale at Trent on 4 May 1832 and worked on it till 1836. The work was never completed but two other books were envisaged, namely, The Redeemer and The Mother of the Redeemer.
L'introduzione del Vangelo secondo Giovanni commentata [A Commentary on the Introduction to St John’s Gospel] was begun on 18 October 1839 and was also unfinished at his death. We have two parts, Concerning the Eternal Generation of the Word and Concerning Creation made through the Word and we can conjecture that the third part would have been the Incarnation of the Word. This would have fitted into the scheme of the Supernatural Anthropology. Both these works are sublime in content and draw heavily on the Fathers and the Scriptures.
The Supernatural Anthropology together with his masterpiece of metaphysics the Teosofia [Theosophy], also published posthumously, were specifically not published by Rosmini ‘because I see only too well that these are not the right times for their being accepted; this age needs milk; it is not capable of taking solid food’.1 During these years Rosmini was concerned with approaching theological topics with a new method which would fill the gap left by what he saw as the lamentable teaching in the Seminaries of his day. He felt that the Church had lost the qualities which pervaded the theological teaching of the first centuries of the Church. In this early period theologians wrote with a warmth and conviction which sprang from their own holiness and this in turn influenced the students who read their books. ‘Scriptures, fathers, scholastics, theologians: these are the steps by which we have arrived finally at the wonderful works we use in our seminaries today.
Their would-be knowledge is on a par with their contempt for our elders. I believe that in the centuries to come, which contain the hopes of the imperishable Church, these books will be judged the most miserable, feeble works written in the eighteen centuries of the Church’s history. They lack spirit, principles, style and method.’2 Rosmini was intent on revealing the close bond between philosophy and theology, between faith and reason. A sound philosophy would provide a sound base for the theology at whose service philosophy was employed.
This entailed a detailed treatment of man in both the natural and supernatural orders.], Epistolario Completo [= EC], vol. X, letter 6365, to Father Giovanni Maria Caroli at Ferrara, p., Delle cinque piaghe della Santa Chiesa [= CP], Edizione Critica [= Ediz. (The Five Wounds of the Church, Rosmini House, Durham trans. Denis Cleary & Terence Watson, [= Durham] chapter 2, n.
Rosmini goes on to say in a footnote that he has no desire to despise scholars and theologians; he recognises their worth and has made use of the principal ones in his works [note, 27, p. 9 Our Light and Our Salvation In 1838 he had written his Antropologia in servizio della scienza morale [Anthropology in the Service of Moral Science] dealing with the natural state of man. In his introduction he writes: Human, moral states and means result partly from human nature itself and partly from positive relationships with the Creator. The first are known by observation of the internal and external facts of human nature which to some extent can be carried out with our natural light.
The second must be obtained from what tradition teaches. Hence in my anthropology there must be a rational part and a positive part in conformity with the two orders to which human beings belong. Nature is one of these orders and the moral conditions deriving from it form the first part of the book. But because, according to the Christian system, human beings belong also to a supernatural order of grace, the moral conditions which flow to us from this higher order are the subject of the second part.3 In his Rinnovamento della filosofia in Italia [Renewal of Philosophy in Italy], he writes, ‘The Theological School started with the consideration of God, I started simply with the consideration of man and nonetheless I found that I arrived at the same conclusions.’4 This procedure is typically Rosminian and shows the importance he allots to both nature and supernature, to philosophy and theology, both of which are inextricably interwined.
The basis of Rosmini’s theory of man’s natural moral state begins with his consideration of the idea of being.5 From his meditation on the idea of being Rosmini saw that this idea possessed infinite characteristics and that it revealed itself as the possibility of infinite being and therefore demanded infinite real being as its fulfilment. This in its turn demanded an infinite moral being. With the help of revelation we find that these three beings find their completion and ultimate fulfilment in the three persons of the Blessed Trinity. ‘The pinnacle of philosophy is clearly shown here to be in God, the author of the light of human reason, the seat of the essences, the author of all things.’ 6 Now if infinite being, the author of all finite beings, revealed himself more fully, there would be another order, a supernatural order.
If being was revealed to us no longer as purely ideal being but as real and subsistent being we should enter the realm of the supernatural, of 3 A., Antropologia in servizio della scienza morale (= AM), Ediz., Rinnovamento della filosofia in Italia, vol II, Ediz. 5 Rosmini’s seminal and first major work the Nuovo saggio sull’origine delle idee, [New Essay on the Origin of ideas] was published in 1830. I refer the reader to my book A Vision for Challenging Times [= JAD], Short Run Press, Exeter 2009., Introduzione alla filosofia (Introduction to Philosophy) [= Introd. For this section, Umberto Muratore AS, Introduzione, pp.
10 Introduction revelation, of faith, of grace. There is no longer merely an idea of being but the person of the Word which imparts to man a new feeling “the feeling of God” which permits us not just to reason about God but to perceive God.7 Just as the light of the idea of being grows brighter through our own meditation, and instruction from others, the supernatural light also develops and multiplies either by our own reflection or by listening to the words of others. ‘In both orders, then, the same pattern is seen, the same hand, the same maker, the same divine teacher.