Henri de Lubac | |
|---|---|
| Cardinal-Deacon ofSanta Maria in Domnica | |
 | |
| Church | Latin Church |
| Appointed | 2 February 1983 |
| Term ended | 4 September 1991 |
| Predecessor | Alfredo Ottaviani |
| Successor | Luigi Poggi |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 22 August 1927 |
| Created cardinal | 2 February 1983 byPope John Paul II |
| Rank | Cardinal-Deacon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Henri-Marie Joseph Sonier de Lubac (1896-02-20)20 February 1896 |
| Died | 4 September 1991(1991-09-04) (aged 95) Paris,France |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Occupation | Jesuit priest/theologian |
| Coat of arms |  |
Henri-Marie Joseph Sonier de LubacSJ (French:[lybak]; 20 February 1896 – 4 September 1991), better known asHenri de Lubac, was a FrenchJesuit priest andcardinal who is considered one of the most influentialtheologians of the 20th century. His writings and doctrinal research played a key role in shaping theSecond Vatican Council.
Henri de Lubac was born inCambrai to an ancient noble family of theArdèche. He was one of six children; his father was a banker and his mother a homemaker. The family returned in 1898 to the Lyon district, where Henri was schooled by Jesuits. A born aristocrat in manner and appearance, de Lubac studied law for a year before, aged 17, joining theSociety of Jesus inLyon on 9 October 1913. Owing to the political climate in France at the time as a result of the French anti-church laws of the early twentieth century, the Jesuitnovitiate had temporarily relocated toSt Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, where de Lubac studied before being drafted to the French army in 1914 due to the outbreak of theGreat War. He received a head wound atLes Éparges on All Saints Day, 1917,[a] which would give him recurring episodes of dizziness and headaches for the rest of his life. Following demobilisation in 1919, de Lubac returned to the Jesuits and continued his philosophical studies, first at Hales Place inCanterbury and then, from 1920 to 1923, at the Maison Saint-Louis, the Jesuit philosophate located at that time inSt. Helier, Jersey. It was here that he would encounter the thought ofMaurice Blondel andPierre Rousselot. The encounter with Blondel would prove especially important. In 1932, de Lubac would eventually write to Blondel and tell him of his encounter withL'Action in the early 1920s, and how Blondel's thought around the problem ofintegralism became one of the central instigators of de Lubac's search for a renewed understanding of the relationship between nature and grace.[1] De Lubac taught at the Jesuit College at Mongré, in the Rhône, from 1923 to 1924, and then in 1924 returned to England and began his four years of theological studies atOre Place in Hastings, East Sussex. In 1926, the Jesuit college was relocated back to Fourvière in Lyons, where de Lubac completed the remaining two years of his theological studies. He wasordained to thepriesthood on 22 August 1927.
| Styles of Henri de Lubac | |
|---|---|
| |
| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
In 1929, de Lubac was appointed professor offundamental theology at theCatholic University of Lyon (the required doctorate having been conferred by theGregorian University in Rome at the behest of the Father General of the Society of Jesus, without de Lubac's setting foot there or ever submitting a dissertation).[2] He would teach there from 1929 to 1961, though with two interruptions – first duringWorld War II, when he was forced underground because of his activities with theFrench Resistance, and then from 1950 to 1958, when the Society of Jesus, under pressure from Rome, removed him from his teaching responsibilities and theFourvière Jesuit residence.
During the 1930s de Lubac spent his time teaching at the Catholic University and researching, as well as teaching (between 1935 and 1940) one course at the Jesuit seminary at Fourvière (where he also lived from 1934 onwards).[3] His first book, the now-classicCatholicisme (English title of the current edition:Catholicism: Christ and Common Destiny of Man) was published in 1938, before the war. In 1940,[b][4] he founded the seriesSources Chrétiennes ("Christian Sources"), co-edited with fellow JesuitJean Daniélou, a collection of bilingual, critical editions of early Christian texts and of theChurch Fathers that has reinvigorated both the study ofpatristics and the doctrine ofSacred Tradition.
During the Second World War, the first interruption to this pattern came: de Lubac joined a movement of "spiritual resistance," assisting in the publication of an underground journal of Nazi resistance calledTémoignage chrétien [fr], orChristian Testimony. It was intended to show the incompatibility of Christian belief with the philosophy and activities of theNazi regime, both in Germany and also under the cover of theVichy government in southern France, which was theoretically independent of theReich. De Lubac was often in hiding from the Germans and several of his co-workers on the journal were captured and executed. Even in hiding, he continued to study and write.
From 1944 onwards, with the end of theNazi occupation of France, de Lubac came out of hiding and published a number of texts (many of them begun or completed before the war but not published in the early 1940s because of the shortage of paper) which became major interventions in twentieth-century Catholic theology. These included:Corpus Mysticum, which had been ready for publication in 1939, and appeared in February 1944;Le Drame de l'humanisme athée, (The Drama of Atheist Humanism) published in December 1944;De la connaissance de Dieu published in 1945;Surnaturel: Études historiques (a book which de Lubac had started at Hastings in his student days), published in 1946 in a print run of 700 copies, because of the ongoing paper shortage.
In June 1950, as de Lubac himself said, "lightning struck Fourvière".[5] De Lubac, who resided at Fourvière but actually did no teaching there, and four Fourvière professors were removed from their duties (in de Lubac's case these included his professorship at Lyon and his editorship ofRecherches de science religieuse) and required to leave the Lyon province. All Jesuit provincials were directed to remove three of his books (Surnaturel,Corpus mysticum, andConnaissance de Dieu) and one article from their libraries and, as far as possible, from public distribution. The action came through the Jesuit Superior General,Jean-Baptiste Janssens, under pressure from the curial office, and was because of "pernicious errors on essential points of dogma".[6] Two months later,[c]Pope Pius XII issued the encyclicalHumani generis, widely believed to have been directed at de Lubac and other theologians associated with thenouvelle théologie,[citation needed] an intellectual movement characterized by renewed attention to the patristic sources of Catholicism, a willingness to address the ideas and concerns of contemporary men and women, a focus on pastoral work and respect for the competencies of the laity, and a sense of the Catholic Church as existing in history and affected by it.
What de Lubac called the "dark years" lasted nearly a decade. It was not until 1956 that he was allowed to return to Lyon and not until 1958 that the university got verbal approval from Rome for de Lubac to return to teaching the courses he previously taught.
Although everything de Lubac wrote during these years was subject to censorship in Rome, he never ceased to study, write, and publish. During these years he brought out a study ofOrigen's biblical exegesis (1950), three books onBuddhism (1951, 1952, 1955),Méditations sur l'Église (1953 – a text which would have great influence onLumen Gentium, the document produced at Vatican II on the nature of the church),[7] andSur les chemins de Dieu (1956).
His pioneering studyExégèse médiévale (1959–1965) revived interest in the spiritual exegesis of scripture and provided a major impetus to the development ofcovenantal theology.
Just before and during the conciliar years, with the blessing of his order, de Lubac also began to write and publish books and articles in defense of the writings ofPierre Teilhard de Chardin, his older friend and fellow Jesuit, who had died in 1955. Teilhard's ideas had influenced several of the theologians of thenouvelle théologie and had also met with extreme disfavour in Rome.
In August 1960,Pope John XXIII appointed de Lubac as a consultant to the Preparatory Theological Commission for the upcomingSecond Vatican Council. He was then made aperitus (theological expert) to the council itself, and later, byPope Paul VI, a member of its Theological Commission (as well as of two secretariats). Although the precise nature of his contribution during the council is difficult to determine, his writings were certainly an influence on the conciliar and post-conciliar periods, particularly in the area ofecclesiology where one of his concerns was to understand thechurch as the community of the whole people of God rather than just theclergy.[8] De Lubac's influence onLumen gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church) andGaudium et spes (Constitution on the Church in the Modern World) is generally recognized.[9]
In 1969Pope Paul VI, an admirer of de Lubac's works, had proposed making him acardinal but de Lubac demurred, believing that for him to become abishop, as required of all cardinals, would be "an abuse of an apostolic office".[d] Paul VI, having committed to creating a Jesuit cardinal, conferred the honor on de Lubac's junior colleagueJean Daniélou instead.
In the years after Vatican II, de Lubac came to be known as a "conservative theologian", his views completely in line with the magisterium – in contrast to his progressive reputation in the first part of his life. Contributing to this reputation, in 1972 de Lubac, alongsideJoseph Ratzinger who later became Pope Benedict XVI, andHans Urs von Balthasar, founded the journalCommunio − a journal which acquired a reputation as offering a more conservative theology thanConcilium.[11]
In 1983Pope John Paul II offered to make de Lubac a cardinal, this time with adispensation from being consecrated a bishop. De Lubac accepted and became the first non-bishop cardinal since the 1962 rule requiring cardinals to be bishops. In theconsistory of 2 February 1983,Pope John Paul II raised de Lubac, at 87, to theCollege of Cardinals. He was created Cardinal Deacon ofSanta Maria in Domnica. On 24 May 1990, de Lubac became the oldest living cardinal. He died inParis in 1991.
On 31 March 2023 theBishops' Conference of France voted to open the cause for canonization for de Lubac due to his influence on Catholic theology and philosophy. If the Vatican agrees, he will firstly be given the title of "Servant of God".[12]
| Records | ||
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| Preceded by | Oldest living Member of the Sacred College 24 May 1990 – 4 September 1991 | Succeeded by |
