Hans Urs von Balthasar prepared this overview of the theology and spirituality of Henri de Lubac, whom he calls friend and master, on the occasion of the latters's eightieth birthday. Beginning with personal reflections drawn from the then unpublished pages of "memoirs" which de Lubac placed in his hands, von Balthasar offers a review of all the major works of de Lubac. Von Balthasar illustrates here the wonderful synthetic power for which he is justly known: bringing the range as well as the organic unity of de Lubac's work clearly into view. The main themes of that work remain as important now as when de Lubac first took them up--perhaps even more important. And there is no one better able to discuss these themes than von Balthasar, a master of theology in his own right and de Lubac's great friend for over fifty years. Co-published with Communio Books.
The unique insight and impressive scholarship of the eminent French theologian Cardinal Henri de Lubac are clearly evident in this volume of collected articles and essays. An article of great timeliness on the priesthood according to St. John Chrysostom as well as an important study of the long debate over the salvation of Origen are among the texts included in the first section, devoted to patristics and Christian humanism. The second section, comprised entirely of an unpublished work on tripartite anthropology tracing the body-soul-spirit distinction from St. Paul, the patristic tradition, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, up to the modern period, will prove an invaluable guide for further study and reflection. The section concludes with a beautiful text entitled "The Light of Christ", a prayerful meditation written during the dark hours of Nazi domination. Section three deals with disputed theological questions such as the internal causes of the disappearance of the sense of the sacred, the mystery of the supernatural, and the development of dogma. He also has a section on Christian resistance to Nazism and anti-semitism, as well as two sections on the thought and writings of several important modern spiritual writers.
The French Jesuit Henri de Lubac (1896-1991) fought in the First World War yet lived to see the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. As a Jesuit novice, he was a political exile, completing most of his formation overseas due to the restrictions imposed by the Third Republic. During World War II, he worked undercover to motivate spiritual resistance to Nazism, placing himself in grave danger. In the 1950s, de Lubac experienced internal exile within the Church, being forbidden to publish any theology. However, the Second Vatican Council brought his rehabilitation and he was later made a Cardinal. De Lubac's theological writings are voluminous, published across the twentieth century in a range of sometimes obscure locations. This is the first time his most important texts on the many different topics on which he wrote have been combined into a single volume. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including some only recently available, a major introduction sheds new light on de Lubac's work, on its intellectual, social, and political contexts, and on his life, especially his later years. Arranged by theme, in the order that de Lubac himself approved, the texts then follow, each with its own introduction and annotations. With the aim of encouraging further study, a compendium provides brief bibliographical details of the many patristic and medieval theologians whom de Lubac discusses. Includes an extended postscript that appraises the most important scholarship on de Lubac on the different themes covered by the texts. An index enables con- cepts used and authors cited in disparate parts of his oeuvre to be compared. The selected texts address the nature of faith, God, the Church, grace and nature, the Eucharist, and Scripture, as well as religion and Buddhism. A leader of the ressourcement movement, de Lubac brought patristic and medieval texts and theology to bear on pressing issues in theological anthropology, doctrine, ecclesiology, scriptural interpretation, and relations with the non-Christian religions. Being well- acquainted with political theory and philosophy, he diagnosed the pathologies of secular modernity and presented a Christian alternative.
Here, Henri de Lubac gathers from throughout the breadth and length of Catholic tradition elements which he synthesizes to show the essentially social and historical character of the Catholic Church and how this worldwide and agelong dimension of the Church is the only adequate matrix for the fulfillment of the person within society and the transcendence of the person towards God.
This work traces the life and writings of this French Jesuit priest, revealing the importance and brilliance of de Lubac's works, the holiness of his life, and his deep love for the Church, which sometimes persecuted this faithful son and devoted priest. Pope John Paul II, who had the highest esteem for de Lubac, stopped his address during a major talk and acknowleged the presence of de Lubac saying, "I bow my head to Father Henri de Lubac." Subsequently, the Pope appointed the holy and beloved theologian a Cardinal. This book reveals who this great Churchman and theologian was, and the importance of his writings.
Henri De Lubac's work on medieval exegesis and his ecclesiological works are too often studied in isolation from each other. In countering this tendency, Susan Wood argues that de Lubac's work on spiritual exegesis is ultimately not about biblical exegesis and the four different meanings of the text but instead is intimately related to issues within the life of the church. Standing as the only study of de Lubac that interprets his theology through the categories of medieval exegesis, this volume provides the intellectual tools for thinking about a theology of history, a theology of symbol and sacrament, and a theology of the church's relationship to Christ and the Eucharist. Including an extensive bibliography of the primary and most important secondary sources of the theology of de Lubac, this study attributes the organic unity found in de Lubac's work to his immersion in the principles of spiritual exegesis and interprets his ecclesiology in the light of these principles.
Origen (185-ca. 254), one of the most prolific and influential of the early Church Fathers, is best known to us for his Scripture exegesis. Henri de Lubac's History and Spirit is a landmark study of Origen's understanding of Scripture and his exegetical methods. In exploring Origne's efforts to interpret the four different senses of Scripture, de Lubac leads the reader through an immense and varied work to its center: Christ the Word.
A collection of aphorisms and reflections that are the fruit of de Lubac's study over the course of his life on the themes of Christianity. They are spiritual aphorisms and meditative reflections that express the freshness and tensions of the spiritual life.
It is well known that Henri de Lubac's groundbreaking and highly controversial work on nature and grace had important implications for the Church's relationship to culture and was intended to remove a philosophical obstacle hindering Catholicism's faithful engagement with the secular world. This book addresses a too-often neglected dimension of de Lubac's theological renewal by examining the centrality and indispensability of spiritual exegesis in his oeuvre and making explicit its social and political significance for the Church's worship and witness. In addition to exploring the historical and ecclesial context within which he worked, the current work brings de Lubac into a critical engagement with the more recent theological movements of postliberalism and radical orthodoxy in order to demonstrate the enduring significance of his theological vision.
