chapter 11 Henri de Lubac (1896–1991) and Contemporary Mystical

Andrew Prevot

Reclaiming de Lubac as a Source for

The name of Henri de Lubac is most often associated with the revival of Catho- lic theology that took place under the headings of ressourcement and nouvelle théologie during the mid-twentieth century, particularly in the period lead- ing up to the Second Vatican Council.1 Moving beyond the rigid confines of a manualist approach to neo-Scholasticism, de Lubac and other like-minded Catholic theologians of his generation (such as Yves Congar [1904–95], Marie- Dominique Chenu [1895–90], and Jean Daniélou [1905–74]) called for a return to the primary sources of scripture and tradition and a recovery of their collec- tive testimony to the idea that the whole of concrete reality is imbued with the saving mystery of Christ.2 De Lubac saw no need for an abstract theory of “pure nature.” He resisted any sharp separation between the demands of Christian life and the most pressing needs of the modern world. He lived during tumul- tuous times, perhaps most poignantly expressed in his late-in-life reflection Christian Resistance to Anti-Semitism: Memories from 1940–1944, which first ap- peared in 1988.3 From the 1930s through the 1980s, he authored an impressive corpus of theological works that manifest both the deep experience of Chris- tian faith he sought to retrieve and the contemporary spiritual and cultural circumstances that he could not help but address – sometimes receptively, sometimes confrontationally. In this chapter, I shall focus on the question of what it means to read de Lu- bac as a mystical theologian. For the most part, historians and theologians writ- ing about have not focused on Henri de Lubac. In English, ­

1 For a glimpse at Henri de Lubac’s influence on Vatican ii, see his Vatican Council Notebooks, vol. 1, trans. Andrew Stefanelli and Anne Englund Nash (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2015). 2 See Jürgen Mettepenningen, Nouvelle théologie: New Theology; Inheritor of Modernism, Pre- cursor of Vatican ii (New York: T&T Clark, 2010), especially 95–114. 3 Henri de Lubac, Christian Resistance to Anti-Semitism: Memories from 1940–1944, trans. Eliza- beth Englund, O.C.D. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1990).

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi 10.1163/9789004340756_013

280 Prevot there are monographs treating the Ignatian mystical roots of (1905–88) and Karl Rahner’s (1904–84) theology, but nothing quite like this on de Lubac.4 Bernard McGinn devotes only one short paragraph to de Lubac in his classic survey of “Theological Approaches.” Although McGinn claims that de Lubac “wrote little directly on mysticism,”5 he does mention one essay by de Lubac called “Mysticism and Mystery,” which shows de Lubac accenting the scriptural, sacramental, and ecclesial features of true Christian mysticism in a manner reminiscent of Anselm Stolz (1900–42). McGinn does not consider whether de Lubac’s many works on biblical exegesis, the body of Christ in the Eucharist and the church, and other theological themes such as nature and grace might therefore be read as major contributions to mystical theology, particularly in the Jesuit tradition. Instead, he discusses the diver- gences between two other Jesuit-inspired Catholic thinkers, namely Rahner and von Balthasar.6 Mark McIntosh adopts a similar focus on Rahner and von Balthasar in his Mystical Theology.7 Indeed, Rahner and von Balthasar – not de Lubac – seem to be the most prominent contemporary Catholic reference points in theological discussions of mysticism. I argue that de Lubac deserves a significant place in this conversation as well. The scholarly literature on de Lubac is replete with statements concerning the profoundly mystical content, significance, and intentions of his work. For example, theologian Susan Wood contends:

De Lubac does not advocate that we abandon the contemporary meth- ods of biblical scholarship, what he calls “scientific exegesis.” He does, however, wish to retrieve a unity which has been lost. This vision of unity constitutes a sort of mysticism in de Lubac’s grasp of the sacred mys- teries. […] De Lubac’s mysticism is a discovery of spiritual meaning in

4 See, for example, Philip Endean, Karl Rahner and Ignatian Spirituality (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) and Mark McIntosh, from Within: Spirituality and the In- carnation in Hans Urs von Balthasar (Notre Dame, in: University of Notre Dame Press, 1996). There are articles such as Christopher Ruddy, “The Ignatian Matrix of Henri de Lubac’s Thought on Temptation, Ascesis, and the Homo Ecclesiasticus,” Heythrop Journal (published online December 2013, doi: 10.1111/heyj.12121), and Avery Dulles, “The Ignatian Charism and Contemporary Theology,” America 176 (April 1997): 14–22, here, 14. 5 Bernard McGinn, The Foundations of Mysticism: Origins to the Fifth Century (New York: Cross- road, 1991), 285. 6 Ibid., 285–290. 7 Mark McIntosh, Mystical Theology: The Integrity of Spirituality and Theology (Malden, ma: Blackwell, 1998), 90–118.