Sacrament and Eschatological Fulfillment in Henri de Lubac\u27s Theology of History

Henri de Lubac, S.J. (1896-1991) led one of the most important developments within twentieth-century Catholic theology, the movement known as thenouvelle théologie. De Lubac\u27s signature move was to return to early church sources to renew contemporary theology. This dissertation explores de Lubac\u27s recovery of patristic eschatology for the contemporary age. While certainly responding to secularization, de Lubac also sought to respond to the messianic and apocalyptic shape of modern religious experience and political ideology. He argued that the source of secular messianisms was a dictotomy within Christianity between mysticism and the apocalyptic. Thenouvelle théologiemovement of the 1940s--from the wartime underground journalCahiers du Témoignage chrétien(The Christian Witness Journals) to the post-war controversy over Christianity and communism--witnesses to the clash of differing eschatologies at the heart of twentieth-century Catholicism. De Lubac\u27s response--his recovery of a patristic exegetical hermeneutics--must therefore be examined with an eschatological lens. De Lubac borrowed from Origen to recover an eschatology that synthesizes a transcendent-oriented mysticism with a future-oriented hope. De Lubac then showed how two historical developments--Pseudo-Dionysian spirituality and Joachimite history--diverged from the traditional patristic eschatology. Dionysian mysticism ejected the historical, while Joachimism\u27s apocalyptic theology of history evacuated authentic transcendence. Both lost a dynamic tension inherent in patristic thought. De Lubac argued that the dichotomy between theinvisibilia Deiand thefuturalay at the origins of rationalistic and apocalyptic ideologies in the twentieth century. In the end, this study argues, de Lubac creatively appropriated patristic anagogy and made eschatology the fundamental structure for his sacramental thinking, his understanding of the church, his Christology, and his mysticism. The dissertation shows that de Lubac\u27s anagogical imagination effected a rapprochement between eschatological impulses within the twentieth century and responded to the needs of a divided Catholicism

Welcome: Notes on The Church as a Community of Reception

The Second Vatican Council affirmed the retrieval of communion ecclesiology and the significance of the local church. Correlating with its communion ecclesiology, questions arose concerning the reception of conciliar teaching. According to Yves Congar, in accordance with the essential conciliarity of the church, reception is a creative process of discernment and assimilation. Black Catholics following the council similarly developed a theology of the local church and a theology of reception. I argue that US Black Catholic theologians and pastors described reception as welcome of the Word of God and hospitality toward those who bear the Word

Theological Anthropology in the Theology of Marriage and Family

The Catholic Church is faced with the challenge of theologically interpreting families that have experienced divorce, remarriage, and children outside of wedlock. The anthropology of conjugal self-gift, though valuable as an analogy to the Trinitarian communion, makes the nuclear family into an ideal. Since fewer than half of children in the U.S. live in the “traditional family,” it remains a problematic ideal. I suggest that familial and marital situations outside of the norm—often seen as problems illustrative of the breakdown of marriage in contemporary society—may be regarded in another light. A more adequate anthropology must consider how diverse marital and family forms can contribute to a theology of marriage

Suffering As Glory In Hans Urs Von Balthasar and James Cone

Based on the paper delivered during the 2012 Annual Meeting, Flipper and Leamy elaborate the implications of the respective reflections on the crucifixion of Christ and his descent into hell in the work of Hans Urs von Balthasar and James H. Cone. They conclude that, together, Balthasar and Cone supply a theological justification for seeing the oppressed and rejected as the privileged media of God’s glorious revelation. Frederic

Foundations in Wisconsin: A Directory [27th ed. 2008]

The 2008 release of Foundations in Wisconsin marks the 27th edition of the print directory and the 8th year of the online version (www.wifoundations.org). The directory is designed as a research tool for grantseekers interested in locating information on private, corporate, and community foundations registered in Wisconsin. Each entry in this new edition has been updated or reviewed to provide the most current information available. Most of the data was drawn from IRS 990-PF tax returns filed by the foundations. However, additional information was obtained from surveys, foundation Web sites, annual reports, and newsletters. Wisconsin foundations have shown continued growth in key areas. The number of active grantmaking foundations has risen to an all-time high of 1,275, with 70 new foundations identified since last year’s publication. While the total grants remained stable at $475 million, the total assets increased by 16.5$7.2 billion.https://epublications.marquette.edu/lib_fiw/1002/thumbnail.jp

Foundations in Wisconsin: A Directory [28th ed. 2009]

The 2009 edition of Foundations in Wisconsin marks the 28th production of the print directory and the 9th year of the online version. The directory is designed as a research tool for grantseekers interested in locating information on private, corporate, and community foundations registered in Wisconsin. Each entry in this new edition has been updated or reviewed to provide the most current information available. Most of the data was drawn from IRS 990-PF tax returns filed by the foundations. However, additional information was obtained from surveys, foundation Web sites, annual reports, and newsletters. Wisconsin foundations have continued to grow in key areas even with the economic downturn. Active grantmaking foundations now number 1,286, with 54 new foundations identified. Total grants increased to an all-time high of $507 million, a 7$6.8 billion.https://epublications.marquette.edu/lib_fiw/1000/thumbnail.jp

The Gods of Nation and Blood: Henri de Lubac and the Heresy of Racism

Theologically understood, racism is more than a sin. It constitutes a heresy that undermines the very identity of the church. Taking form in ideology and systemic exclusion, racism threatens to co-opt Christianity because it offers a powerful anti-Christian narrative about who we are as human beings while invoking Europe’s “Christian heritage.” We should be alarmed not only at the physical violence racism provokes, but also at the signs of the re-animated gods of nation and blood. As de Lubac recognized in the 1940s, unless the church embodies visibly what its doctrine proclaims it to be—the visible site of the reunification of a humanity divided by sin—it fails to be authentically catholic

Comparative Theology in the Introductory Class

I teach an introduction to religious studies and theology class required for all undergraduates. Though students are religiously diverse and bring diverse contextual knowledge, most have little exposure to religious traditions outside of their own denomination. My objectives are for the students to personally encounter religious others, to intentionally interpret the rituals, meditations, or religious actions of religious others, and engage in a comparison with their own religious tradition or non-religious worldview

Review of Philippe Geneste, Humanisme et Lumière du Christ chez Henri de Lubac

Henri de Lubac, S.J. (1896–1991) has been interpreted in various and highly contradictory ways, as a modernist, a theological conservative, a Thomist, a closet neo-Platonist, a proto-postmodern theologian, and as a post-liberal. Philippe Geneste interprets him in the only way plausible: as a Jesuit. Humanisme et Lumière du Christ chez Henri de Lubac was the doctoral thesis of Geneste, who died in an automobile accident in 2014. Jean-Pierre Wagner, Geneste’s doctoral advisor, edited the thesis for publication in the series Les études lubaciennes.The point of departure for this study is not what one might expect, a systematic analysis of the structure of human nature or the theology of natural desire for the supernatural in de Lubac’s work. Instead, Geneste approaches anthropology and Christology from a tradition of Christian humanism rooted in Ignatian spirituality

The Beautiful Game: Soccer\u27s Theological Virtues

In “A Perfect Game,” his August 2010 essay in First Things, the Orthodox theologian and scholar David Bentley Hart argues that the sports we play and watch, in addition to being entertaining, also offer an aesthetic interpretation of reality—a way of enjoying the world, being in it, and seeing it. Sport orients the human vision to the transcendent; it bears an essentially metaphysical or religious content