The Letter on Apologetics, and History and DogmaThe work of French philosopher Maurice Blondel lies behind most of the controversies in twentieth-century French Catholic thought, and bore its fruit in the Second Vatican Council. Recognized in Europe as one of the outstanding figures in the Catholic revival that began at the turn of the century, Blondel was described by Pope John Paul II as "one of the first to discern what was at stake in the Modernist crisis." Published together here are two of Blondel's most significant texts. The Letter on Apologetics (1896) is a key statement on the possibility and meaning of Christian philosophy. History and Dogma (1904), written in response to the Modernist crisis, is an important contribution to the notion of tradition, seeing it neither in terms of historicism nor as something mechanical, but as a living synthesis. Introductory essays by Alexander Dru and Illtyd Trethowan provide essential historical and biographical background as well as an account of the philosophical and theological principles of Blondel's thought. -- Back cover |
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Page 2 - Catholic sensibility. The editor of the Ressourcement series, David L. Schindler, is Gagnon Professor of Fundamental Theology at the John Paul II Institute in Washington, DC, and editor of the North American edition of Communio: International Catholic Review, a federation of journals in thirteen countries founded in Europe in 1972 by Hans Urs von Balthasar, Jean Danielou, Henri de Lubac, Joseph Ratzinger, and others.
Page 2 - In keeping with that spirit, the series understands ressourcement as revitalization: a return to the sources, for the purpose of developing a theology that will truly meet the challenges of our time. Some of the features of the series, then, will be: • a return to classical (patristic-mediaeval) sources; • a renewed interpretation of St. Thomas; • a dialogue with the major movements and thinkers of the twentieth century, with particular attention to problems associated with the Enlightenment,...
Page 1 - Sources chretiennes collection are based on the presupposition that "the renewal of Christian vitality is linked at least partially to a renewed exploration of the periods and of the works where the Christian tradition is expressed with particular intensity." In sum, for the ressourcement theologians theology involved a "return to the sources...
Page 1 - During this period (1930-1950), a broad intellectual and spiritual movement arose within the European Catholic community, largely in response to the secularism that lay at the core of the crisis. The movement drew inspiration from earlier theologians and philosophers such as Mohler, Newman, Gardeil, Rousselot, and Blondel, as well as from men of letters like Charles Peguy and Paul Claudel, The group of academic theologians included in the movement extended into Belgium and Germany, in the work of...
Page 1 - It is not true — as subsequent folklore has it — that those theologians represented any sort of self-conscious "school": indeed, the differences among them, for example, between Fourviere and Saulchoir, were important. At the same time, most of them were united in the double conviction that theology had to speak to the present situation, and that the condition for doing so faithfully lay in a recovery of the Church's past.
Page 1 - Saulchoir, were important. At the same time, most of them were united in the double conviction that theology had to speak to the present situation, and that the condition for doing so faithfully lay in a recovery of the Church's past. In other words, they saw...