Nåd & Natur. En läsning av Kathryn Tanner i ljuset av Henri de Lubac

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to compare the theology of ‘Nature and Grace’ of contemporary scholar Kathryn Tanner and mid-1900 catholic theologian Henri de Lubac. The reason for choosing these theologians lies in that Tanner draws many of her ideas from de Lubac. Due to this reason, it would be interesting to see in what fashion the theology of Tanner correlates with the theology of de Lubac, looking both at similarities but especially pin-pointing their differences. This is done by way of first introducing the nature-grace debate, followed by a presentation of Tanner and de Lubac, finally leading up to a comparison of the two. By comparing Tanner and de Lubac, it became clear that Tanners ideas and methods are inspired by de Lubacs work. It is also clear that some of their conclusions do in fact turn them away from each other; the clearest one being that de Lubac uses paradoxes as the axiom for his theological arguments, while Tanner omitts this concept. Some of their conclusions differ because of the fact that Tanner is a protestant theologian dealing with protestant issues, like that of justification.