DONI PRETERNATURALI. -
I. NOTION
This expression is ordinarily used to designate the privileges that Adam and Eve received at the beginning, in the state of innocence, together with sanctifying Grace, infused virtues, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Sanctifying Grace, the infused virtues, and the gifts that derive from it are called supernatural gifts insofar as they are “a participation in the divine nature” (v. CONSORZIO DIVINO) and the germ of eternal life, which consists in the immediate vision of the divine essence; they are supernatural gifts not only because God alone can produce them in us and because they are gratuitous, but also because they intrinsically surpass every created and creatable nature, whether human or angelic. Whereas the life miraculously restored to a corpse is a natural life (vegetative and sensitive), supernaturally caused by God, sanctifying Grace is an essentially supernatural life for both the angel and the human being; it is a participation in the intimate life of God and disposes us to see him face to face and enjoy him for all eternity (v. DONI SOPRANNATURALI E GIUSTIZIA ORIGINALE).The d. p. are far inferior to sanctifying Grace; although God alone can produce them in us, and although they are not owed to us and are therefore gratuitous, they are not intrinsically, by their very essence, superior to any created or creatable nature; indeed, they are inferior to angelic nature and constitute the integrity of our human nature, which is why they are called gifts of integrity. Integrity is a perfection of the natural order that can be gratuitously superadded to human nature. By nature, man is a rational animal, and nothing more; profound philosophical knowledge and solid virtue of the human order belong to his integrity or natural perfection; if, instead of acquiring them gradually, he received them gratuitously from God at the moment of creation, they are called d. p., because they are not superior to nature, but beyond what is owed to II. They proceeded from Grace as from their cause, but were inferior to it, serving as its ornament and defense.
II. DIVISION OF THE D. P. — According to Revelation, the d. p. are four: in the state of innocence man was preserved in his body from death and pain,
and his soul was preserved from disordered concupiscence and ignorance. The testimony of Revelation contained in Gen. 1 and 2 is more explicit concerning the existence and gratuitousness of the first two privileges, immunity from death and pain, but it also indicates the more exalted and less manifest privileges, immunity from concupiscence and ignorance. Thus it can be seen that in the state of original justice there was a threefold harmony: the subordination of the soul to God through Grace; the subordination of the lower part to the higher part of the soul; and the subordination of the body to the soul. The latter two derive from the first; when the first was destroyed, the other two also disappeared.
1. In the state of innocence man was immune from death
Although by nature he was subject to death, like the animals, he was nevertheless preserved from it by a singular privilege, so long as he remained faithful to God. This is clearly read in Gen. 2, 16: «The Lord said to Adam: you may eat the fruits of the trees of paradise, but you shall not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because on the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die». Likewise, after the disobedience, we read in Gen. 3, 19: «You shall eat your bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the earth... for you are dust and to dust you shall return». The same doctrine is found in Wis. 2, 23, 24 and in St. Paul, Rom. 5, 12-17, in Tradition, and in many conciliar definitions (Denz-U, 101, 175, 788). St. Thomas (Sum. Theol., 1ª, q. 97, a. 1) explains the fittingness and gratuitousness of this privilege. So long as the soul was totally subject to God, it was fitting that from God it should have the power to preserve the body in life. The latter, insofar as it is materially composed, is naturally corruptible, like that of the animals; immortality was therefore gratuitous, not due to our nature, but was a privilege of the state of innocence. The gratuitousness of this gift is affirmed by the Church in the condemnation of several propositions of Baio (Denz-U, 1021, 1026, 1055).2. Man was also immune from pain
Sacred Scripture partly indicates that in the earthly paradise man possessed whatever he could reasonably desire, worked without becoming weary, and that the animals and lower beings were subject to him (Gen. 1, 26; 2, 8, 15; Eccli. 17, 3-4). Pain appears in Genesis as a consequence of sin (Gen. 3, 19). Moreover, immunity from death presupposes immunity from the pains and illnesses that lead to death. Tradition explains this revealed doctrine (cf. R. De Journel, Enchiridion patriciens, 1762, 1952, 2013, 2122), and St. Thomas (Sum. Theol., 1ª, q. 97, a. 2, ad. 4) demonstrates the fittingness of such a privilege. Certainly the human body, like that of the animals, is by nature subject to pain; but so long as the soul remained subject to God, Providence preserved the body from pain and death.3. Man was immune from disordered concupiscence
Gen. 2, 25 and 3, 7 lay the foundation for this doctrine: before sin, Adam and Eve were naked and did not blush because of it; after sin, they felt the need to clothe themselves on account of the disordered concupiscence that had awakened in them. St. Paul (Rom. 6, 12; 7, 19-25) specifies this teaching. The Council of Trent (Denz-U, 792) declares that concupiscence is sometimes called by St. Paul by the name of sin (Rom. 6, 22) because it was born from sin and inclines toward sin, but that in the baptized it is not, properly speaking, a sin, but rather a wound in the process of healing. Following the holy Fathers, especially St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Thomas (Sum. Theol., 1ª, q. 95, a. 1) shows the fittingness of this privilege: as long as reason remained subject to God, it was fitting that the lower faculties should also remain subject; but this subjection was not natural, otherwise it would have remained, like nature itself, even after sin (cf. Sum. Theol., 1ª, q. 81, a. 3, ad. 2).4. Man was immune from ignorance
This is a theologically certain truth (cf. Sum. Theol., 1ᵃ, q. 94, a. 3, 4). To be ignorant does not mean merely not to know; it means not to know what, according to one’s age and circumstances, one ought to know. Thus, one does not say that a European who does not know Chinese is ignorant of II. Now the first man, together with the supernatural knowledge of infused faith, founded upon the authority of God revealing, possessed natural knowledge proportionate to his state of original justice and necessary for governing himself and instructing and educating his children. It is the common teaching of theologians that, according to what Sacred Scripture suggests, Adam was created as an adult, with an already formed intellect, although still capable of further development. It is also said (Gen. 19-20) that God caused the animals to pass before man so that he might give them names. Finally, Adam understood the meaning of the elements of language. The first man must also have known what distinguished him from the animal, what distinguishes the intellect and the senses, the will and sensibility; he must have had certain knowledge of the real value of the necessity and universality of the first principles of contradiction, causality, and finality, without which the existence of God, the first cause and ultimate end, cannot be demonstrated. Since the first man lived, as the Genesis says, in familiarity with God, he must finally have had certain knowledge of moral and religious matters, which was necessary for the conduct of his own life and the education of his children (Eccl. 17, 1-8).Tradition also affirms this clearly, through St. Augustine, St. Cyril of Alexandria, and St. John Damascene (cf. R. de Journel, Enchir. Patrist., index theol., 272). St. Thomas (Sum. Theol., 1ᵃ, q. 94, a. 3) explains it as follows: «Creatures formed by God in the beginning were created not only so that they might exist, but so that they might be the principle (and model) of those to come; for a just reason they were produced in a perfect state». And if the first man, in the state of innocence, had a most perfect body immune from death and pain, as the Genesis openly says, still more perfect must his soul have been, so that he might rightly govern himself and his children. This lofty knowledge of moral and religious laws could coexist with a rudimentary material civilization; thus certain founders of religious Orders, such as St. Benedict and St. Francis of Assisi, received from God a very lofty knowledge of the Order they were to found long before the technical drafting of its rules; the spirit preceded the letter in order to give it life; subsequently, technical and material progress was often accompanied by a moral and spiritual regression.
The knowledge of the first man nevertheless remained a knowledge of faith illumined by the gifts of the Holy Spirit; he did not see God intuitively, nor the Angels, nor did he know contingent future events or the secrets of hearts.
III. CONCLUSIONS
These four privileges of the state of innocence constituted the gift of integrity, which accompanies sanctifying grace, the infused virtues, and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. This integrity was not due to human nature; it was gratuitous (or preternatural), as the Church declares against Baius (Denz-U, 1026). It follows that the state of pure or purely natural nature is possible, that is, God could have created man without grace and without the preternatural gifts of integrity. This is evident from the condemnation of several propositions of Baius (Denz-U, 1021, 1023, 1055, 1070, 1516). Nevertheless, according to s. Thomas (C. Gent., I. IV, cap. 52), the disordered concupiscence found in man, and the weakness of resistance to the higher part of the soul, are probable signs of original sin, which came to disturb the harmony established by the Creator.If the first man had not sinned, the preternatural gifts would have been transmitted by him to his descendants together with human nature (Council of Trid., sess. V, canons 1 and 2; Denz-U, 788-89). Adam’s children would not have possessed the perfection he had by virtue of having been created an adult and as educator of the human race, but they would have had a special acuity for knowing the truth, especially moral truth, without danger of error.
BIBLI: Sum. Theol., 1ᵃ, q. 94-102; 1ᵃ-2ᵐ, q. 85, a. 2; with the relevant commentaries by Capreolus, Cajetan, Gonet, Billiart, Gotti, Hugon, Billot, A. Thouvenin, Innocence (état d'), in DTNC, VII, cols. 1939-40; A. Michel, Justice originelle, ibid., VIII, cols. 2020-42; R. Garrigou-Lagrange, De Deo Trino et Creatore, Torino 1943, pp. 424-29. Reginaldo Garrigou-Lagrange