El gran teatro del mundo of Pedro Calderon de la Barca and the Centrality of Grace

EL GRAN TEATRO DEL MUNDO OF PEDRO CALDERÓN DE LA BARCA AND THE CENTRALITY OF GRACE(I) ROBERT W. FELKEL, Western Michigan University The problem of classifying Calderón's El gran teatro del mundo has caused not a little disagreement among critics. Angel Valbuena Prat states, for example, that it is «. . . una obra esencialmente filosófica, que por las circunstancias en que está escrita tiene que mirar necesariamente a la teolog ía. »(2) A. A. Parker, on the other hand, finds this emphasis on the philosophical nature of the auto misleading, stating that it is «. . . not primarily a 'philosophical' but a 'sociological' auto. »(3) A more recent contributor to the discussion, Robert L. Fiore, uses an analysis of Thomistic natural law to categorize the play as «filosófico-moral,»(4) a term which, as he states, had previously been used by Valbuena Prat, but without elaboration.(5) All these classifications, depending as heavily as they do on the role of natural reason, may have the perhaps unintended effect of humanizing the play (in the secular sense of the word), and this would surely distort its meaning for us. Ernst Robert Curtius is absolutely correct when he states that the human being is not the main axis of Calderón's theater. (6) It is the purpose of this paper to show that El gran teatro del mundo is principally theological in character. It is undeniable that the play has philosophical and social implications, but these are logical consequences of its theological affirmations , not vice-versa. This will be revealed through an analysis of the didactic purpose that underlies the work and a correlation of certain of its key elements with pertinent passages of the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas, especially the treatise on law in the prima secundae and the magisterial analysis of the virtues in the secunda secundae. It is our intention to show that Calderón emphasizes the theological virtues, especially charity, and that he even includes an element of polemic by presenting the outlines of a theology of grace and justification that is directly opposed to its Protestant counterpart at certain key points. (7) As is well known, El gran teatro del mundo is based on a metaphor which compares human life from birth to death (followed by reward or punishment , with a play. El Autor (i.e. God), having already created the world, wishes to stage «una comedia»(8) using actors whose function it will be to«representar con estilo oportuno» (p. 71). El Mundo is simultaneously the stage upon which they will perform and the stage manager, and his function is to «fabricar apariencias» (p. 71). El Mundo 's long romance which follows receipt of his instructions 127 128Bulletin of the Comediantes from elAutor \s important since it presents the Thomistic distinction between three kinds of eternal law: natural law, written law, and the law of grace.(9) Natural law is the eternal law as knowable by sound human reason without the aid of supernatural revelation,(10) and its basic precept is «Do good avoid evil» (I-II, Q94, a2). This type of law would be sufficient for man if he had a purely natural end to attain. But man has a supernatural destiny, the vision of the Divine Essence (I-II, Q3, a8). In order for him to attain beatitude Divine revealed law is necessary. Calderón, like Aquinas, divides Divine law into two kinds, imperfect and perfect. The «ley escrita» (p. 76) is the Old Law, the law of God expressed in the Old Testament. Its effect was to repress concupiscence and prevent sin, but it was incapable of conferring the grace that man needs to reach his supernatural last end; this was reserved to Christ (I-II, Q98, al). Thus, what Calderón calls the «ley de gracia» (p. 77) is the law of the New Testament. It is the law of grace given through faith in Christ (I-II, Q106, al), and it is this law and only this law that justifies (I-II, Q106, a2). Since remission of guilt is impossible without this infusion of grace (I-II, Q113, a2), and since grace is the principle of...