An Avant-garde Theological Generation: The Nouvelle Theologie and the French Crisis of Modernity

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An Avant-garde Theological Generation examines the Fourvière Jesuits and Le Saulchoir Dominicans, theologians and philosophers who comprised the influential reform movement the nouvelle théologie. Led by Henri de Lubac, Jean Daniélou, Yves Congar, and Marie-Dominique Chenu, the movement flourished from the 1930s until its suppression in 1950. It aims to remedy certain historical deficiencies by constructing a history both sensitive to the wider intellectual, political, economic, and cultural milieu of the French interwar crisis, and that establishes continuity with the Modernist crisis and the First World War. Chapter One examines the modern French avant-garde generations that have shaped intellectual and political thought in France, providing context for a historical narrative of the nouvelle théologie. Chapters Two and Three examine the influential older generations that flourished from 1893 to 1914, such as the Dreyfus generation, the generation of Catholic Modernists, and two generations of older Jesuits and Dominicans, which were instrumental in the Fourvière Jesuits' development. Chapter Four explores the influence of the First World War and the years of the 1920s, during which the Jesuits and Dominicans were in religious and intellectual formation, relying heavily on unpublished letters and documents from the Jesuits archives in Paris (Vanves). Chapter Five analyses the crises of the interwar period and the emergence of the wider generation of 1930-to which the nouveaux théologiens belonged-and its intellectual thirst for revolution. Chapter Six examines the emergence of the ressourcement thinkers during the tumultuous years of the 1930s. The decade of the 1940s, explored in Chapter Seven, saw the rise to prominence of the members of the generation of 1930, who, thanks to their participation in the resistance, emerged from the Second World War, with significant influence on the postwar French intellectual milieu. Finally, the monograph concludes in Chapter Eight with an examination of the triumph of French Left Catholicism and the nouvelle théologie during the 1960s at the Second Vatican Council. . Cover An Avant-garde Theological Generation: The Nouvelle Théologie and the French Crisis of Modernity Copyright Dedicaiton Acknowledgements Foreword Table of Contents Abbreviations Introduction THE NOUVELLE THÉOLOGIE: A SHORT HISTORY The Fourvière Jesuits The Le Saulchoir Dominicans THE NEED FOR A CULTURAL AND GLOBAL HISTORY A New Periodization 1: Modern French Intellectual Generations CULTURAL HISTORY AND GENERATIONAL THEORY THE BIRTH OF GENERATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS TWENTIETH-CENTURY FRENCH INTELLECTUAL GENERATIONS La Génération de l’affaire Dreyfus La Génération d’Agathon La Génération du Feu La Génération de la Crise The Nouvelle Théologie: A Theological Cohort of the Generation of 1930 2: 1893–1914: Sedimented Generations in a Divided France THE DREYFUS GENERATION: A DIVIDED FRANCE THE MODERNIST GENERATION: A DIVIDED CHURCH The Classical Narrative Loisy and Tyrrell PHILOSOPHICAL MODERNISM: BLONDEL, LABERTHONNIÈRE, AND LE ROY Maurice Blondel The Manual: The Dramatic, Unified, and Concrete Character of Human Existence The Manifesto: Against a Defensive and Absolute Thomism The Method: The Sociohistorical Character of Existence The Method: The Sociopolitical Character of Existence Lucien Laberthonnière Édouard Le Roy An Anthropological and Ecclesiological Blueprint 3: The First Ressourcement: The Generations of 1890 and 1912 THE JESUIT GENERATION OF 1890: DE GRANDMAISON, LEBRETON, D’ALÈS, AND RECHERCHES DE SCIENCE RELIGIEUSE Léonce de Grandmaison Jules Lebreton THE DOMINICAN GENERATION OF 1890: GARDEIL, SERTILLANGES, AND MANDONNET THE JESUIT GENERATION OF 1912: VALENSIN, ROUSSELOT, HUBY, TEILHARD, MARÉCHAL, FONTOYNONT, AND CHARLES Auguste Valensin: A Blondelian Disciple A Modern Thomistic Synthesis Conceptualism vs Intellectualism The Desire for God Pierre Rousselot: A Proto-Ressourcement Jesuit Joseph Huby: A Disciple of Rousselot Teilhard de Chardin: Science, Philosophy, and God Joseph Maréchal: Kant and Aquinas Blondel, German Idealism, and the Drive toward the Absolute 4: 1920s: The Formation of the Generation of 1930 A PREAMBLE: EARLY FORMATION AND THE WAR YEARS The First World War The War Generation Dominicans during the War A Post-War Debate A BLONDELIAN PHILOSOPHICAL FORMATION 1919–20: A First Taste of Rousselot 1920–1: Philosophy Year I—Learning to Read Aquinas 1921–2: Philosophy Year II—Blondel and the Desire for God 1922–3: The Third Year—Individual Projects A THEOLOGICAL FORMATION UNDER HUBY 1924–6: Theology at Ore Place and the Discovery of Hegel 1926–8: Theology at Fourvière A GENERATIONAL DESIDERATA De Lubac: A New Apologetics A Dominican Awakening 5: 1930s: The Crisis of Humanism and the Generation of 1930 CRISIS AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE GENERATION OF 1930 A Complete Crisis of Civilization: The Elites Undertake an Analysis A Generational Mission: A New Humanism HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS PHILOSOPHY: TOWARDS THE CONCRETE ENGAGEMENT 6: The Catholic Generation of 1930 CRISIS: A DECADENT, RATIONALISTIC, AND INDIVIDUALISTIC CHURCH A METHODOLOGICAL BLUEPRINT: THE TÜBINGEN SCHOOL CATHOLIC HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS The Ressourcement Foundation Recovering the Golden Thread: The Real Spirit of the Fathers and Aquinas History and Dogma The History of Desire CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY: TOWARDS THE CONCRETE Kierkegaard: An Existential Model for a Revolutionary Programme Beyond Hierarchy to Mystique and Solidarity: The Mystical Body of Christ Fessard, Hegel, and Maine de Biran De Montcheuil and Malebranche ENGAGEMENT Political Engagement: Maritain and True Humanism An Ecumenical Engagement Une artiste engagé A Dialogue with the World CONCLUSION: A NEW CHRISTIAN DIMENSION 7: 1940s: The Triumph of the Generation of 1930 THE WAR YEARS La Resistance Spirituelle A Critique of the Church: ‘A Crisis of Progress’ Engagement and the Task of Construction THE TASK: A NEW HUMANISM The Roots of Atheist Humanism An Anthropological Ontology: A Blondelian Reading of Aquinas Anthropological Epistemology: Recognizing the Desire Exegesis and Dogma THE TASK: A NEW ECCLESIOLOGY Corpus Mysticum: Deconstructing a Decadent and Individual Ecclesiology De Montcheuil’s Ecclesiology The Necessary Move toward Universal Salvation THE LIBERATION AND THE RISE OF THE GENERATION OF 1930 A Generational Manifesto Dialogue Théologique: The Toulouse Objection 8: 1960s: The Global Triumph of the Generation of 1930 THE POST-WAR DIFFUSION Two Popes and the Nouvelle Théologie The Vatican II Reformers and the Nouvelle Théologie The Intellectuals The Letter to the World A CONCILIAR METHODOLOGY: PHENOMENOLOGY, HISTORY, AND ENGAGEMENT LA CRISE APRÈS-CONCILE The Final Debate A Generational Cohort Breaks Away THE PRESSURE OF HISTORY Bibliography Names Index General Index