La filosofía primera y los misterios revelados (I): Las nociones de causar y de dar, y el misterio de la gracia

Abstract

Philosophy can clarify some human problems, which often darken the mysteries of Christian faith. In this piece of research, which is the first of a series of papers on this topic, the notion of giving is introduced and studied with the aid of a well-known Augustinian text about the Divine grace. After comparing it with other texts of Semipelagian authors, the paper proposes to understand the grace doctrine according to a logic of gift or donation, rejecting its causal interpretation – because if the grace activity is understood causally, freedom is impossible, and therefore merit. However, if the grace’s activity is conceived according to the activity of giving, then freedom is required – which makes room for merit or demerit. Neither Pelagians nor Semipelagians understood this. But St. Augustine discovered that grace is a donation, by which our merits are the joint outcome of God’s gifts and our collaboration with them.

La filosofía puede desenredar problemas humanos que obscurecen los misterios revelados. Este trabajo, primero de una serie sobre ese tema, presenta la noción de dar mediante un conocido texto agustiniano sobre la gracia. Y, tras confrontarlo con textos de autores semipelagianos, propone entender la gracia en clave donal, no causal. Si la actividad de la gracia fuera causal, quedarían imposibilitadas la libertad y el mérito; en cambio, ejercida según el dar, incluye a ambos. Ni pelagianos ni semipelagianos entendieron esto; s. Agustín, empero, descubrió dicha donalidad: los méritos derivan, conjuntamente, de los dones divinos y de nuestra colaboración con ellos.