Catholic Theological Receptions

This chapter examines the Roman Catholic theological receptions of John Henry Newman, whose highly original writings frequently endured sharp criticism and misunderstanding in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, during the decades leading up to the Second Vatican Council (1962–5), Newman became a crucial resource for Catholic theologians associated with ‘la nouvelle théologie’ and ‘Transcendental Thomism’. These figures drew heavily on Newman’s works in their search for more satisfying treatments of urgent issues for modern Catholic theology, such as the development of doctrine, the relationship between faith and reason, and justification. In the contemporary setting, Newman’s subtle treatments of these important topics have enormous ongoing significance for Catholic theology.

Leopoldo Eijo y el Instituto Francisco Suárez del CSIC

Estudio del impulso que el obispo de Madrid, Leopoldo Eijo, dio a la creación (1940) y a las actividades del Instituto de Teología "Francisco Suárez", del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, en Madrid, hasta su muerte en 1963. Destaca su sensibilidad ante la posible penetración de la nouvelle théologie en España.

Grace and the Secular

Charles Taylor indicates in A Secular Age his admiration for Henri de Lubac, Yves Congar, and other Catholic theologians associated with la nouvelle théologie. This essay reads de Lubac and Taylor on the secular, analyzing convergences as well as key differences. In particular, it argues that both underestimate the possibilities of political and liberation theologies. The concluding section puts de Lubac and Taylor in dialogue with forms of political theology that have been in dialogue with their work. The author argues that a stronger political theology can be drawn out of the approach of de Lubac and Taylor despite the trepidations of each toward such a project.

Thomism and the Renewal of Theology. Chenu, Charlier, and their Ressourcement

ABSTRACTLa nouvelle théologie is often associated with a certain disapprobation of Thomism. Yet in its “first phase,” the theological renewal of the Dominicans M.-D. Chenu (Le Saulchoir) and Louis Charlier (Leuven) was founded and justified upon a historical hermeneutics of Thomas' conception of theology. Against neo-Thomism's excessive rationalism, both Chenu and Charlier strove to recover Thomas's reciprocal immanence of faith and theology by reorienting theology towards the revealed Given. Their concrete elaborations of this fundamental aim, however, ran along different lines. For Charlier, actual theology should be positive theology, regulated by collective faith as expressed in the official teaching of the Magisterium. Chenu on the other hand upholds a theology—both positive and speculative—animated by the theologian's subjective perception of faith. These differences reveal that Chenu and Charlier belong to different theological schools with their own theological traditions: the speculative-theological tradition of Le Sauchoir (A. Gardeil) versus the positive-theological tradition of Leuven (R. Draguet).

Le statut contemporain du théologico-politique

Résumé Le débat entre E. Peterson et C. Schmitt des années 1930 sur le théologico-politique a laissé une question irrésolue qui resurgit dans les sociétés pluralistes postmodernes. La nouvelle théologie politique du théologien de Münster J.B. Metz la réactive en proposant au fil de son oeuvre une éthique politique comme éthique du changement social. En sous-estimant le caractère polémique du politique et la fragilité des sujets dont l’identité est devenue précaire, Metz parvient sûrement à une théologie critique mais demeure incertain sur le versant de l’invention politique proprement dite de la société. L’opposition de J. Milbank à cette théologie politique ne dirime pas la question et demeure dans un geste uniquement critique en proposant une contre-éthique, une contre-ontologie, un contre-royaume par la mise en oeuvre de pratiques narratives, rituelles et sociales. Un débat entre la théologie de J.B. Metz et la pensée communautariste de S. Hauerwas pourrait peut-être affronter la question de l’avènement des sujets capables d’invention politique dans les sociétés complexes de la postmodernité.