Theology in History

The unique insight and impressive scholarship of the eminent French theologian Cardinal Henri de Lubac are clearly evident in this volume of collected articles and essays. The first section is devoted to patristics and Christian humanism. Cardinal de Lubac includes an article on the priesthood according to St. John Chrysostom and a study of the debate over Origen’s salvation, among others. The second section represents an unpublished work on tripartite anthropology tracing the body-soul-spirit distinction from St. Paul, the patristic tradition, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas up to the modern period. It concludes with a beautiful text entitled “The Light of Christ,” a prayerful meditation written during the dark hours of Nazi domination. Section three wrestles with disputed theological questions such as the disappearance of the sense of the sacred, the mystery of the supernatural, and the development of dogma. Cardinal de Lubac discusses Christian resistance to Nazism and anti-Semitism, as well as the works of important modern spiritual writers.