The opportunity to spend an entire year Sabbatical year reading the theology of the ressourcement movement has been a sacramental gift.
Hans Boersma (vii)
Hans Boersma has already rendered exquisite and probing yeoman’s duty with Violence, Hospitality and the Cross: Reappropriating the Atonement Tradition (2004). This groundbreaking tome made it abundantly clear that the historic and patristic church had five main ways of understanding the atonement, hence there is no need to be committed to one particular version of the atonement (particularly the penal-juridical theory). Hans’ turn to the breadth and depth of the Great Tradition signaled, for the alert, the larger project that he is engaged in -- a return to the ancient sources as a site of insight and nourishment for the mind and imagination, soul and heart. The modern and postmodern project are thin and lack a decided depth, hence the much needed and delayed return to the life giving wells of the waiting past.
Nouvelle Theologie & Sacramental Ontology continues, in many ways, the project that Hans began in Violence, Hospitality and the Cross. The only difference is where the research begins even though the destination is much the same. A significant aspect of the modern project has been an uncritical commitment to both empiricism and rationalism. Such an approach has, to a greater or lesser degree, pandered to a form of science and banished mystery. Sadly so, a great deal of modern theology has become excessively addicted to rationalism and an unhealthy confessionalism. The Neo-Thomist tradition in the Roman Catholic church and much protestant theology has bowed to such a modern way. Both the postmodern and classical approach are committed to deconstructing the ‘logocentric model’ of modernity, but much hinges on the direction taken after such a solid No to the rationalist method.
Nouvelle Theologie & Sacramental Theology turns, consciously so, to 19th and 20th century Roman Catholic theologians that were committed, in different ways, in deconstructing an unhealthy rationalism in modern theology and turning to the creedal and sacramental way of the ancients. This way of mystery and faith is held high as a means of bidding adieu to a reductionistic way of knowing and being. Hans holds high such Roman Catholic worthies as Jean Danielou, Maurice Blondel, Joseph Marechal, Pierre Rousselot, Henri de Lubac, Henri Bouillard, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Marie-Dominique Chenu. Needless to say, there is a mystical and contemplative sophistication in these theologians that holds the heart and mind spellbound. These thinkers were part of the ‘ressourcement movement’ that is, increasingly so, drawing the hearts and minds of deeper thinkers in our era. The ‘New Theologians’ were, in reality, theologians committed to the old ways of doing theology with a more mystical, sacramental and delicate touch. It is quite understandable, therefore, why there is a growing interest in them. Our age is weary of a narrow rationalism that is paper thin when it comes to dealing with the deep things of life. Hans is on the forefront and cutting edge of pointing the way to the ancient wells and the life giving waters that can slake a deeper thirst.
There are a few comments that need to be made by way of conclusion. First, let it be stated this is a must read book. It is not for the sentimental of heart or lazy of mind. It is for those that are hungry and hunger for a more meaningful faith. Second, the connection between the Roman Catholic theologians of the 19th-20th centuries and the Classical era of Christian Patristic thought is knitted together well. This is conservatism rooted in the thick soil of well tended history. Third, I tend to be interested in the relationship between theology, the church and public/prophetic witness, and I find this book somewhat lacking in the public/prophetic dimensions of being, sacrament and mystery. This does worry me. Fourth, this dilemma could have been avoided, perhaps, by including Thomas Merton in the book. Merton was as profoundly concerned with being, sacrament and mystery as were the theologians discussed in the book, but Merton had a definite commitment to the public/prophetic aspects of the faith journey. Merton was French, like many of the theologians mentioned in the book, he was a contemporary of some of them and he corresponded with some of them. In fact, Merton and Jean LeClercq were prophetic monks and mystical theologians of a high order. Survival or Prophecy: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Jean LeClercq (2002) tells their tale well. Patrick O’Connell’s meticulous work on Merton and the Church Fathers is spelled out in detail in Cassian and the Fathers (2005) and Pre-Benedictine Monasticism (2006). I’m convinced that a study of Merton-LeClercq would have enriched Nouvelle Theologie just as a thorough read of Christopher Pramuk’s Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton (2009) would have more fully filled out the turn to the Great Tradition from within the Eastern Sophia/wisdom way of knowing and being. It is somewhat ironic that Merton, who was so committed to the Tradition, is often ignored by those within the ‘ressourcement movement’. This issue does need to be faced and the reasons for his marginalization discussed.
I was fortunate, as a young man, to study with Jim Houston at Regent College between 1979-1981. I did my thesis with him on John Cassian.
Jim had lived with Nicolas Zernov when in England and met often with C.S. Lewis. Jim brought to Regent College a pronounced grounding in a more catholic-orthodox approach to spiritual theology that came as a mild yet real critique of the reformed theology that has often dominated Regent College. Hans now holds the J.I. Packer chair at Regent College, and, in many ways, he is continuing, in a more systematic and in depth manner, the project initiated by Jim Houston. Nouvelle Theologie & Sacramental Ontology: A Return to Mystery is a must read for those interested in knowing new sites to see for those that began their journey in a reformed, evangelical or Neo-Thomist family, and how the old ways can reform and renew the modern and postmodern.
Ron Dart
I have purchased the publication. Surprisingly I was just last night enjoying a address on Nouvelle Theologie. Balthasar has been a big effect on me over the last season or so. Restoring holy secret in theology is right up my street. I desire for it.
Posted by: freelance writer jobs | January 05, 2012 at 06:35 AM
Thank you, Ron.
I have ordered the book. Ironically I was just yesterday listening to a lecture on Nouvelle Theologie. Balthasar has been a big influence on me over the past year or so. Recovering sacred mystery in theology is right up my alley. I thirst for it. The scientism approach of evangelical theology nearly did me in -- nearly bored me to death.
Brian Zahnd
Posted by: Brian Zahnd | November 15, 2010 at 11:46 AM