Journal Put', 1932, no. 35, p. 97-99.
BookReview: Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. -- La Providence et la confiance
en Dieu. Desclee de Brouwer.
(1932 - #378)
Garrigou-Lagrange, a Dominican and professor of the theological faculty at
St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, is considered a chief theologian and philosopher of
contemporary Thomism. His books are regarded as of great authority. His new book
concerning Providence produced on me a very strong impression, at the time of
its reading it made me atheistic and furthermore a militant atheist. I have to
say moreover, that the greater number of attempts at theodicy produce upon me
a similar impression and as regards my conviction this appears to be one of the
causes of an atheistic consciousness. Suchlike first of all was the theodicy of
Leibniz. And in vain do they reproach Leibniz of rationalism, presupposing, that
the traditional theological systems are free of this rationalism. The theodicy
of Blessed Augustine is hardly better, in it the living human person likewise
falls victim to an abstract idea of the harmony of the whole, in which evil and
suffering are necessary, as a shadowing of the light. The fashioners of a theodicy
are usually very reminiscent of Job's comforters and in this is their condemnation.
The philosophy of Garrigou-Lagrange as regards its insufferable optimism in the
final end has very much an affinity with a philosophy of Pangloss, evil and justly
mocked at by Voltaire. Characteristic to Thomism generally in but a weak degree
is there any sense of evil and suffering. This is not at all a tragic world-conception,
and its rationalistic optimism is determined by a theological philosophy. Of all
the rational proofs for the existence of God, and all generally not much effective,
the indisputably weakest is the theological proof. When, to begin with, there
is put forth the question about the gathering together as a whole of everything
that has come about in the world, atheism then becomes no less plausible, than
is theism. The faith in God, in Meaning is possible only in spite of the absurdities
in world life. Garrigou-Lagrange -- is passively a contemplative, moreso a Greek,
than he is a Christian, and quite alien to him is the tragic aspect of the Cross.
But the aspect of beauty of Greek contemplation in this conception vanishes and
is replaced by an insufferable moralising rationalisation. Garrigou-Lagrange,
in his teaching about Providence, bypasses the solely viable theodicy -- a theodicy
that is Christological, through the Cross and Crucifixion of God Himself. Theodicy,
i.e. a justification of God, the possibility of faith in Providence in the face
of the suffering and evil of the world, such a faith can be possible only in Christ,
in the suffering and sacrificial offering up of God Himself. But Garrigou-Lagrange
is a scholastic and academic man, he lives under a glass beaker of sorts, he does
not know people, he does not know the world, he does not know the torment and
agony of the world. After Dostoevsky, after Nietzsche, after Kierkegaard it is
impossible to write thus, as Garrigou-Lagrange is wont to write, and reading him
becomes impossible. This is a judgement over every schoolish theology, alien to
life, with its rationalistic and optimistic theodicy. At the final endpoint along
the pathways of Garrigou-Lagrange there transpires a justifying of the existence
of evil in the world (God foresaw and thus permitted everything), a justifying
of every injustice and unrighteousness, and together with this a condemning of
the "evil ones" to eternal torments, whilst forbidding love towards the condemned.
And the justification of evil actually culminates with a reinforcement for hell.
Hell is needful for the world order, for the world harmony, hell is proper, good,
is justice. And in suchlike manner evil does not infringe upon the design of Providence.
Garrigou-Lagrange, certainly, as regards established tradition, is mortally afraid
of pantheism. The repudiation of any sort of pantheism is regarded as a chief
exploit of Thomas Aquinas, and he accomplishes it by his classical radical distinction
between the natural and the supernatural. But it in turn leads to this, that the
First Mover is rendered always external in regard to the world and to man, and
that these relationships begin to resemble a mere mechanical impulse. God loves
Himself most of all and He creates for Himself, for His own glorification He creates
the world and man, which are not needful to Him, which in the Divine life are
as of an insignificant matter of arbitrariness and caprice. The panicky fear of
pantheism leads to pantheism in a new form, not in the form of a deification of
the world and of man, but in the form of an acknowledgement of their ultimate
insignificance, their virtual nothingness, their complete worthlessness per se.
In this concept mortally hostile to pantheism there is negated all the creative
activity of man, all his free initiative. This represents a glaring contradiction
within the criticism of pantheism by every rational theology. And connected with
this, it would seem, is that all Catholic theology inevitably has to pass over
into a negative thinking, a resorting to symbols in place of concepts. The Catholic
thinking concerning God leads to irresolvable contradictions and provides instead
food to nourish atheism. Since of all the names, which are given to God, there
is one only name, which can never arouse an atheistic indignation, and this name
is Mystery. But when we begin to speak in an anthropomorphic language, then the
finest names -- are Love, Sacrifice, Suffering. Thomism, just as with almost all
rational theology, lacks the ability to establish a proper correlation between
the positive and the negative cognition of God, it wanders too far off into rationalisation
and forbids even moving, when the difficulty becomes intolerable. And unsupportable
moreover in the book of Garrigou-Lagrange is the conviction, common to all Thomists,
that man always by nature strives towards happiness and the good, which is eudaimonism.
Modern psychology nowise supports this, it corroborates Dostoevsky and Nietzsche,
rather than Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. Garrigou-Lagrange clearly distorts the
Gospel and diminishes the uniqueness of the Christian revelation, when he establishes
a gradation of love according to kindred affinity. Those of kindred affinity are
supposed to love more, than those not of a kindred affinity, people their own
nationality moreso, than people of a foreign nationality, etc. It is inconceivable
for what sort of souls the book of Garrigou-Lagrange is written, it belongs to
the type of pious literature, which all the more and more becomes unbearable for
souls more complex and refined, such as which torment over God. The acclaimed
book of Garrigou-Lagrange, "Le sens commun", tends to stand on far higher a level.
Nikolai Berdyaev.
1932
© 2003 by translator Fr. S. Janos
(1932 - 378 - en)
GARRIGOU-LAGRANGE, O.P.: LA PROVIDENCE ET LA CONFIANCE EN DIEU.
Journal Put', sept. 1932, no. 35, p. 97-99.
