Les theologiens jesuites: Un courant uniforme?
Worcester, Thomas
Les theologiens jesuites: Un courant uniforme? By Michel Fedou,
S.J. Collection Petite Bibliotheque Jesuite. Brussels: Lessius, 2014.
Pp. 144. 12 [euro].
This volume is part of a very useful series on Jesuit topics.
Fedou, professor of patristics and systematic theology at the Centre
Sevres in Paris, offers a nuanced answer to the question of uniformity,
or the lack of it, in the work of Jesuit theologians. He distinguishes
four eras: the first generations from the companions of Ignatius of
Loyola to ca. 1620; the 17th and 18th centuries, including conflicts
between Jesuits and Jansenists regarding grace and human freedom, moral
theology, and sacramental practice; the restored Society of Jesus from
1815 to the 1950s, with both reactionary currents of thought as well as
the nouvelle theologie of Henri de Lubac and the "supernatural
existential" of Karl Rahner; Vatican II to the present, with a
truly global Society of Jesus, whose theologians work not only in Europe
and North America but also in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
F. argues that while there is a great variety of theological
methods and approaches among Jesuits, there are certain recurring
characteristics of Jesuit theology. Jesuit theologians seek to explain
and teach the faith in ways consonant with a given time and place, in
the context of a specific culture, with its language, traditions,
imagination. Jesuit theology is closely related to spirituality centered
on the human person in relation to God, and on the vocation of the
person to live a life in response to God's gracious call. Informed
by the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, Jesuit theology is
Christocentric and articulated from within the Church and for the
Church. At the same time, Jesuit theology is open to the experience of
God in other religious traditions, an openness not always appreciated in
Rome.
This work is well worth reading, even if at times it attends too
much to theologians working in France and Germany and too little to
those working elsewhere.
Thomas Worcester, S.J.
College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA
