Reinhard Hütter examines the Catholic debate over the natural desire for the beatific vision, engaging Lawrence Feingold’s defence of traditional Thomism and John Milbank’s criticism of it. The central issue is whether humanity is intrinsically ordered to supernatural communion with God, as Henri de Lubac argues, or whether beatitude exceeds every natural capacity and remains a gratuitous gift requiring grace. Hütter presents Feingold’s speculative, metaphysical method as a serious challenge to historical-hermeneutical approaches and criticises dismissals that substitute ideological labels for theological argument. Both theological methods, he maintains, must remain accountable to the Church’s dogmatic tradition and living magisterium. Drawing on Thomas Aquinas, the article distinguishes human nature from its state and separates a natural love for God as the source of being from an elicited, supernatural desire for the vision of God. The hypothetical state of pure nature is not humanity’s historical condition but a logically possible order that clarifies the gratuity of grace. Creation, original justice, sanctifying grace, and predestination therefore represent distinct divine gifts: grace elevates nature without becoming its intrinsic requirement. Hütter argues that de Lubac’s claim of an innate desire for the beatific vision risks making the supernatural necessary, whereas Aquinas preserves both humanity’s openness to God and the freedom of divine grace. Universal salvation may be hoped for and prayed for, but cannot be treated as a settled doctrinal certainty.