Western Sophiology? The "Eternal Feminine" in the Thought of Henri de Lubac ANDRZEJ PERSIDOK (original) (raw)
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Western Sophiology? The "Eternal Feminine” in the Thought of Henri de Lubac
Verbum Vitae
The study is dedicated to the Mariology and ecclesiology of Henri de Lubac. It analyzes the works in which de Lubac emphasizes the unity of these two fields of theology, referring primarily to the Fathers of the Church and to the thought of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. This article tries to show that these are not purely historical references, but an expression of de Lubac’s original reflection, which forms a coherent whole. This whole is reconstructed at the end of the article. In consequence, there might be seen a kind of “Western sophiology,” a theological synthesis in which the “feminine element” plays an important role, and the central, rather than peripheral, nature of the truths of faith concerning the Mother of God and the Church becomes visible.
“According to the Whole:” the ‘Catholicity’ of the Church in the Theology of Henri de Lubac
Wrocławski Przegląd Teologiczny, 2020
This study has as its subject the meaning of the ‘catholicity’ of the Church in the works of Henri de Lubac. The French theologian, drawing his inspiration mainly from the Fathers of the Church, recovers the complete meaning of the adjective ‘Catholic,’ as containing in itself the true universality as well as the strictest unity. In his works he also tries to show that it is a multifaceted reality: the Church is Catholic in her social, historical and internal aspects. Only all three make up the full picture of her ‘catholicity.’ This study attempts to explain each of the three closely related aspects on the basis of a selection of de Lubac’s works. Although the French theologian does not belong to the most recent authors, it seems to us that his concept of the ‘three-dimensional’ character of Catholicism can help to develop the proper attitude of the Church towards today’s world – so that it will be possible to avoid both the loss of identity and the closed, sectarian mentality.
Henri de Lubac's Theology of Revelation: From Distance to Mystery
Landas: Journal of Loyola School of Theology, 2014
Henri de Lubac’s great contribution to Catholic theology remains to be his understanding of grace and nature, and most importantly the relationship between these two. However, in articulating these, he was also able to provide a different way of understanding God, returning to how the Church Fathers articulated Revelation, which in turn was barely stressed in the Enlightenment. Given this, the paper traces this shift on his writings, starting from his reaction toward contemporary atheism to his articulation of the relationship between the natural and supernatural. Moreover, it also shows how this understanding of God is significant in the formation of his own theology which completely changed the way Christian theology understands the human being, the world that he belongs to, and the God that he believes in. In the end, this paper will show that in order to understand and articulate Christian faith, it is important to stress the understanding of God as a Mystery that only faith and charity can gain access to.
This essay focuses on two key figures of the paradigm shift of contemporary Anglophone theology, namely on the founder of modern Ressourcement theology, Henri de Lubac SJ, and his disciple Michel de Certeau SJ, who (as a later disciple of Jacques Lacan) developed one of the first theologically profound responses to the challenges of post-modernity and the accompanying philosophical debates of post-structuralism (Derrida, Foucault, Lacan etc.). To begin with the essay outlines the similarities and differences between Lubac and Certeau and argues that Certeau’s post-Vatican II attempts to mediate between the Catholic tradition and the secular space of postmoderne culture was inevitably accompanied by a deconstruction of the modern institutionalisation and confessionalisation of Christianity. The last point sheds light on Certeau’s conflict with his teacher Lubac, who was to a certain extent still attached to the modern dualism between a ‘sacred’ and a ‘secular’ space. However, Certeau’s justified deconstruction of modern Christianity fails to do justice to the pre-modern roots of Lubac’s concept of the Church as ‘body of Christ’, as it is the case with many of his readers who tend to read Lubac’s landmark book Corpus mysticum through the lenses of Certeau (including John Milbank and Catherin Pickstock). Hence this essay provides a significant contribution to the genealogy of the contemporary paradigm shift both in terms of its philosophical, cultural and ecclesial context and in terms of the pre-modern legacy it has started to recover subsequent to the groundbreaking work of Henri de Lubac. A substantially revised version of this essay has been published in German: 16. Mystagogische Zugänge zur Kirche als Leib Christi. Certeaus taktische Re-lektüre von Corpus Mysticum und das Vermächtnis Henri de Lubacs. In: Bauer, Christian; Sorace, Marco A. (Ed.), Gott, anderswo? Theologie im Gespräch mit Michel de Certeau (Mainz: Matthias Grünewald 2019), 249-286