Jean Danielou's Doxological Humanism [Hardcover]

Description: In the spring of 1946, Jean Dani?lou published an article by the title of Les orientations presents de la pens?e religieuse for Etudes. Dani?lou's article--at least according to his critics--set the program for what would be later referred to as la nouvelle th?ologie. Though Dani?lou's influence was definitive at the inception of the movement (loosely understood) and continued up until Vatican II and after it, relatively little (especially compared to his close associate Henri de Lubac) has been written about Dani?lou in English even in the recent resurgence of interest in nouvelle th?ologie. This book seeks to fill that gap in part by providing an overview of his theology with extensive reference to his vast corpus of writings by highlighting what seems to be the key to his thought: that all human beings were made for contemplation and that one is only truly human when one exercises this innate calling in a Trinitarian fashion. Endorsements: Marc Nicholas's superb study of Jean Dani?lou demonstrates that our modern, cultural melancholy derives largely from our saintlessness. Yet a surpassing joy awaits all who are willing to embrace the saintly life of prayer and contemplation as Dani?lou envisions it. Far from being escapist and otherworldly, Nicholas reveals that a liturgical existence is profoundly political. Christian saints humanize the city of man, he shows, by building the city of God in our midst. --Ralph C. Wood, Baylor University Jean Dani?lou is one of the less-studied figures in the twentieth-century Catholic movement of nouvelle th?ologie. Nicholas remedies this by holding him up as a theologian who successfully reintegrates theology and spirituality, giving voice to an integral humanism that does true justice to the doxological essence of humanity. Jean Dani?lou's Doxological Humanism is a patient and careful account of many of Dani?lou's writings, which sheds light on the French Jesuit's deepest motivations. --Hans Boersma,lƒv