You Are Gods: On Nature and Supernature

Hart's provocative monograph advances a radical theological anthropology that challenges conventional distinctions between nature and supernature, arguing that human beings possess an inherent orientation toward divine participation that culminates in theosis or deification. The work represents a significant intervention in contemporary debates about naturalism, consciousness, and the metaphysical status of human persons, while also engaging classical patristic and Eastern Orthodox theological traditions.

The text develops through interconnected philosophical and theological arguments. Hart critiques modern naturalist accounts of consciousness, contending that the qualitative dimensions of experience, intentionality, and rational thought cannot be reduced to physical processes. He argues that consciousness reveals an irreducible transcendence within human nature that points beyond merely natural categories. This phenomenological analysis serves as the foundation for his broader theological claims about human destiny.

Drawing extensively on Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor, and other patristic sources, Hart articulates a vision of human nature as inherently open to the infinite. He rejects both pure naturalism and extrinsicist accounts of grace that treat the supernatural as an alien imposition on human nature. Instead, he proposes that the human person is naturally supernatural - constituted by a fundamental orientation toward union with God that defines rather than contradicts human nature. The title's bold assertion "You Are Gods" references both scriptural passages and patristic teaching about theosis, which Hart presents not as metaphorical but as the literal destiny of human beings.

The work engages critically with Thomistic nature-grace distinctions, particularly as interpreted through twentieth-century Neo-Scholasticism. Hart argues these frameworks create false dichotomies that obscure the radical implications of Christian teaching about deification. He also challenges contemporary theological trends that accommodate naturalist assumptions, insisting that authentic Christian anthropology requires recognizing the human person's irreducible transcendence.

Hart's monograph matters for several reasons. It offers a sophisticated philosophical defense of non-reductive views of consciousness while connecting these arguments to theological questions about human destiny. It retrieves patristic theological resources for contemporary debates while challenging dominant Western theological paradigms. Most significantly, it presents a maximalist vision of human dignity and destiny that stands in sharp opposition to both secular naturalism and minimalist theological anthropologies, demanding reconsideration of fundamental assumptions about nature, grace, and the human person's relationship to God.