Customer Reviews

Meet Henri De Lubac

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This book is about not only the life of Fr. de Lubac, but also his major works and theological thought. Throughout the book, the author draws from Fr. de Lubac's book reflecting on his own writings titled "At the Service of the Church." However, this book only acts as the framework for which the author considers many of the other writings of de Lubac including Catholicism, The Drama of Atheist Humanism, and The Splendor of the Church. One thing I learned about de Lubac was his fascination with Buddhism. Not in so much a "this religion is so cool" way, but he was very interested in learning about it and never, to my knowledge, let his interest in the Buddhist religion influence his theological writings in a heretical way. The author also discusses the sad time in de Lubac's life in which he was silenced by the Church for his writings in "The Supernatural." Though de Lubac loved to write new theology, his obedience to the Church came first, and he bore his cross like the true saint he is. de Lubac's obedience to mother Church paid off (of course) as many of his theological writings and some of his ideas in The Supernatural (I think) were used in Vatican II.

There were a couple of things that I learned about de Lubac that surprised me. First was the fact that he wrote in defense of Teilhard de Chardin. This came as a shock to me, as I have always understood Teilhard's writings to be downright heretical. However, I will give Fr. de Lubac the benefit of the doubt and someday look more into what de Lubac has to say about Teilhard and to what extent he defends him. More shocking than this to me was the fact that Fr. de Lubac and my favorite theologian Fr. Garrigiou-Lagrange butted heads. This was quite the blow to me, as I hold both of these theologians in very high esteem.

All in all, this was a very good introduction to the writings and thought of Fr. de Lubac. In fact, this is probably the book to read before any of Fr. de Lubac's actual writings because they can be very difficult to read and understand if one doesn't have a good idea where he is going or is used to writing which can be strings of quotes separated by the occasional prepositional phrase or transition word.

However difficult it may be to write biography about a deep thinker (with something important to say), the author has captured the essence of the great man and the controversy which surrounded him. From controversy came triumph, also well described and explained.
From a Catholic deacon

Inside the catholic Church, Fr. De Lubac is one of the pillars in theology, in view to see the new world as a means to conquer heaven. He is cited by some other theologians as a literary reference, including Pope Benedictus XVI. His thoughts are profound, and take us into the almost-escence of our human being grasped to God.