Henri de Lubac was born in Cambrai, France on February 20, 1896. He was one of six children born to Maurice Sonier de Lubac and Gabrielle de Beaurepaire. He spent his childhood and studied, first with the Christian Brothers’ school in 1901-1902, and 1904, and then with the Sisters of St. Joseph in Lyons in 1905. From 1909-1911, he continued his studies at the Jesuit College of Notre Dame de Mongré in Villefranche-sur- Saône. Beginning in 1911, de Lubac studied at the College of Moulins Bellevue and earned his baccalaureate and secondary school diploma in 1912. He then took two semesters of law at the Institut Catholique of Lyons and applied in the fall of 1913 for admission to the Society of Jesus.
B. Jesuits, the First World War, and Continued Studies
French laws hostile to religious communities forced the Jesuits from Lyons to England from 1901-1926. De Lubac, therefore, entered the novitiate at Saint Leonard’s in Sussex, but he was drafted into the French army in 1914, in which he served until 1919. During his time in the French army, he was wounded in action and awarded the 142 For the biographical information in this chapter I have relied primarily on Voderholzer, Meet Henri De
Croix de Guerre, a French military decoration of war awarded to those who have distinguished themselves for heroic acts during battle.143
From 1920 until 1923, he pursued philosophical and theological studies on the Isle of Jersey, followed by a Jesuit regency at the college of the Jesuits of Mongré. He
continued advanced theological studies in Hastings, which was completed at Lyon- Fourvière, where he was ordained a priest, August 23, 1927.144 In 1929, he was named
Professor of Fundamental Theology in the School of Catholic Theology at Lyon.145
C. Scholar and Controversial Figure: La Nouvelle Théologie
In 1935, de Lubac joined the theology faculty at Fourvière, where he taught only occasional courses until 1940. In 1940, together with Jean Daniélou, former student and friend, de Lubac founded the series Sources Chrétiennes. Sources Chrétiennes made Patristic and medieval texts available to the general public, and in 1944, he collaborated in the
collection Théologie, a supplemental series to Sources Chrétiennes dedicated as an explanation of patristic theology and its application to modern issues. Volume three of Théologie was de Lubac’s Corpus Mysticum.146 From 1945 until 1950, he was the editor of Recherches de
science religieuse, a journal dedicated to the scientific research of religious and was founded in 1910 in Paris by Leonce de Grandmaison. Many of de Lubac’s works presented fresh examinations of the tradition in order to address contemporary problems. Unfortunately, in 1946, Surnaturel, which challenged the contemporary Thomistic interpretation of the possibility of a pure nature, ignited attacks against de Lubac’s orthodoxy. As Voderholzer 143 Voderholzer (Meet Henri De Lubac, 36) writes, “On ‘All Saints’ Day in 1917 he sustained a serious head wound.”
144 See Voderholzer, Meet Henri De Lubac, 40-41. 145 See Ibid., 45f.
indicates “the publication of his study [Surnaterel] was one of the more important
catalysts, and Henri de Lubac was perhaps the most prominent and articulate theologian in a movement that others now tried to label la nouvelle théologie—the “New Theology.”147
De Lubac himself, and others associated with this new movement, denies that such a school actually existed.
Nevertheless, de Lubac was regarded with much suspicion and was characterized as a member of the controversial la nouvelle théologie inasmuch as he shared many of the same goals of others who had been associated with this movement.148 However, as Hans
Boersma points out,
many of the ressourcement scholars themselves, however—Henri de Lubac, Jean Daniélou, Henri Bouillard (1908-81), Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Yves Congar—questioned the appropriateness of the term. Intent on a ressourcement of the Tradition, they did not regard their theology as new; nor had they any intention of starting a distinct theological school.149
Those typically categorized as members of this movement sought to overcome the prevailing theological system—neo-scholasticism, which had dominated the theological scene since the late 19th century—and the upheaval caused by the Modernist crisis of the
147 Ibid., 64.
148 I use nouvelle théologie (and ressourcement) as a term to describe de Lubac’s theological thought in the positive sense: he sought to both update the Church’s life by returning to the sources of the faith and to thereby ‘renew’ what the Church already in fact possessed, but may have neglected or overlooked for an extended period of time.
149 I wish neither to delve into the controversy surrounding the actual existence of such a “school” of thought nor examine whether de Lubac truly belonged to such a group. Many of the so-called members of the ‘new theology,’ have argued against the commonly held idea that they were a tightly organised group, e.g., Yves Congar and Henri de Lubac both detested this pejorative label. For an in-depth treatment of la
nouvelle théologie see especially Boersma, Nouvelle Théologie, 8. See also Jürgen Mettepenningen, Nouvelle Théologie: Inheritor of Modernism, Precursor of Vatican II, (New York: T & T Clark, 2010); Wood, Spiritual Exegesis,
6-24 and Daley, “The Nouvelle Théologie and the Patristic Revival,” 362f.; Wang, “Sacramentum Unitatis
Ecclesiasticae: The Eucharistic Ecclesiology of Henri De Lubac,” 143; D’Ambrosio, “Ressourcement Theology,”
530-32; Voderholzer, Meet Henri De Lubac, 63-94; Joseph Komonchak, “Theology and Culture At Mid- Century: The Example of Henri De Lubac,” Theological Studies 51 (1990): 579-602.
late 19th and early 20th centuries.150 Those associated with nouvelle théologie, provided an
answer to post-Reformation theology, the neo-scholasticism that dominated Catholic theology before the council, and the problems that arose from the Modernist crisis.
D. Renewal: Member of the Theological Commission and Peritus for Vatican II Although several of de Lubac’s works came under attack (Corpus Mysticum,
Connaissance de Dieu), it was only after the publication of Surnaturel: Études historiques in 1946 that this attack intensified. In 1950, with the publication of the encyclical Humani generis, de Lubac came under suspicion. According to de Lubac,
shortly after the publication of the encyclical Humani generis, a new measure had been taken. The order was given to withdraw from our libraries and from the trade, among other publications, three of my books: Surnaturel, Corpus mysticum and Connaissance de Dieu —as well as (from our libraries) the volume of Recherches containing my article on the ‘Mystère de surnaturel’.151
However, three years later, de Lubac returned to Lyons and was allowed to begin teaching again, although not on a regular basis as a member of the theology faculty.
Six years later, in 1959, Pope John XXIII announced his intention to convoke a council, and, on May 17 of the same year, the preparatory commission was established. In 1960, the second phase of the preparations began: ten commissions and two
secretaries were set up. As a member of one of the preparatory commissions, de Lubac also became a peritus (an expert) for the council. At the council many of de Lubac’s
150 According to Boersma (Nouvelle Théologie, 87), “the focal point of nouvelle théologie’s criticism was usually either the scholasticism of the post-Reformation period or the more recent neo-scholasticism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.”
151 De Lubac, At the Service of the Church, 74. See also Daley, “The Nouvelle Théologie and the Patristic Revival,” 362f.; Hans Urs Von Balthasar, The Theology of Henri De Lubac (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1991), 17ff; Voderholzer, Meet Henri De Lubac, 67-73; George Chantraine, “Cardinal Henri De Lubac (1896-1991),” 299; Martina, “The Historical Context in Which the Idea of a New Ecumenical Council Was Born,” 30ff.
insights retrieved from the patristic and medieval tradition would enrich the conciliar documents and the Church’s life.152
Now that I have given an outline of de Lubac’s life up to the council, I would like to present de Lubac’s theological work as a ressourcement theologian, specifically his
retrieval of Origen. Origen’s thought, especially as it relates to the doctrine of the One Table of God’s Logos in Scripture and Eucharist, was taken up by de Lubac and reappears in the council documents, especially its formulation in Dei Verbum.