THE SUPERNATURAL IN A SECULAR AGE. TWO ONTOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES IN ROMAN CATHOLICISM.

Abstract

A sharp distinction between secularization as a form of contemporary thought and the secular as a paradigm plays a central role in Catholicism’s engagement with late modernity. The efforts of the liturgical and ressourcement movements operated in the 20^th century in concert with the Magisterium, aiming to accentuate the sense of Roman Catholicism as a supernatural religion. The recovery of the supernatural was seen, by towering figures such as Maurice Blondel and Henri de Lubac, as an antidote to the mounting challenge of secularism. However, philosophers like Charles Taylor purport that the formation of the secular promoting the estrangement of nature from the supernatural order make these liturgical-ecclesial efforts ineffective. This article compares these two modern theological projects and reveals their different ontologies.