Henri De Lubac

Early Life

He was born in Cambrai in an ancient, noble family of the Ardèche . His father was a banker. A born aristocrat in manner and appearance, a man of exquisitely simple elegance in everything he did and said, he joined the Society Of Jesus in Lyon on October 9 , 1913 , at which time there was no Jesuit scholasticate in France owing to political persecution. Accordingly, he was trained in England.

He fought in the trenches during the Great War and was severely wounded in the head. (He suffered sequellæ from this throughout his very long life.) He was Ordained Priest in 1927 . He was a professor at the Institut Catholique of Lyon from 1929 to 1961 except during World War II , when he was forced underground because of his activities with the French Resistance .

From 1938 book succeeded book until, in 1948, he was forbidden to publish anything, his orthodoxy becoming suspect after showing that Francisco Suárez , favourite authority of Neo-thomists , had actually commented works by Aquinas now known to be spurious. This fact was not supposed to be alluded to by "good" Jesuits. Also, his now-celebrated work SURNATUREL (1946) had likewise given heart attacks to Suárez-trained bureaucrats in Rome and elsewhere.

Henri de Lubac's response was obediently to submit, and to create the memorable series Sources Chrétiennes Sources" , a collection of bilingual, critical editions of early Christian texts and of the Fathers Of The Church which has revolutionized both the study of Patristics and the doctrine of Sacred Tradition .

Second Vatican Council

In 1960 however, pope John XXIII named him to the preparatory commissions organising the upcoming II Vatican Council. ("I was treated like a hostage, sometimes like a criminal in the dock".) Nevertheless the " New Theology ", of which Henri de Lubac, along with Yves Congar and Karl Rahner , was one of the most distinguished exponents, soon became dominant among the council fathers and Paul VI named him a peritus, a theological consultant, to the council, during which his influence, particularly on Ecclesiology and Patristics , was fundamental and decisive. The final conciliar texts, celebrated for their irenic, non-bullying tone, owe much to Henri de Lubac's encyclopædic knowledge, clear thinking and elegant latinity.

In the aftermath of Vatican II, however, de Lubac became disappointed by the undisciplined free-for-all that became the norm, and wrote several works explaining the true teaching of the Council fathers and decrying the uncritical disorder that seemed to have settled over theological minds. It is perhaps because of this that in 1983 John Paul II created the unlikely Henri de Lubac, at 87, a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church .

Spirituality and theological viewpoint

'' and only answers that take man's real-life into account constitute real answers. In this, of course, he follows the writers of the Bible and the Fathers .

If the correct definition of "spirituality" is the true classic one of "the relationship between man and God", Henri de Lubac makes the sensible suggestion that, to discover that relationship, man first look inward and discover his true self; his true self will necessarily lead him to God,the source and aim of all being. For this reason, the "true self" cannot be the "love yourself" non-sense of the crass popular mind, but that manner of being whose depth leads to God; whose depth IS God. We discover ourselves and God at the same time: it is one process.

Seldom has a text radiated so much devoted faith and prayerful profoundity, and how refreshing it is to take this in with de Lubac's modern, unadorned, elegant prose. This book speaks so directly to the modern mind, without Baroque deadwood.

The greatness of modern theology is that it poses questions and suggests answers that we really are interested in. This makes people like Karl Rahner and Henri de Lubac more pertinent than ever. Unlike the difficult Rahner, though, Henri de Lubac is a real pleasure to read.

The oldest living Cardinal

In 1969 Pope Paul VI , an admirer of de Lubac's works, had proposed making him a Cardinal , but de Lubac demurred, believing Pope John XXIII 's 1962 requirement that all cardinals be Bishop s was "an abuse of an apostolic office". Paul VI instead elevated de Lubac's junior colleague Jean Daniélou in that Consistory , having committed to grant the cardinalate to a Jesuit theologian, but in 1983 Pope John Paul II offered de Lubac the cardinalate again, this time with a Dispensation from being consecrated a bishop. At 87, de Lubac accepted. At his death he was the oldest living Cardinal.

For more information see Justin Nickelsen's website: www.nouvelletheologie.blogspot.com

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Henri De Lubac