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2 Entering the Fray Three Theologians, Three Schools With the broad historical and theological background of chapter 1 in place, it is now time to introduce one by one the three figures whose theology of deification constitutes the subject of this book, and whose respective theological approaches have become representative of three quite distinct schools or traditions in Catholic theology in the twentieth century, lasting right down until the present day. Biographical details about them abound, though only a few monographs in English are dedicated solely to an account of their life, and many details have to be gleaned from articles. Garrigou-Lagrange’s life is briefly but handily outlined in a single chapter in Richard Peddicord’s Sacred Monster of Thomism (2004).1 A still authoritative account of Rahner’s life is given by Herbert Vorgrimmler, Understanding Karl Rahner (1986), while de Lubac’s life and work are the combined subject of Rudolph Voderholzer’s Meet Henri de Lubac (2008).2 From these and a range of other sources it is possible to construct the following summary resumé. 1. Richard Peddicord, The Sacred Monster of Thomism: An Introduction to the Life and Legacy of Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 2004). I was fortunate enough to enjoy a number of informal conversations with one of his students from the 1950s and ’60s, Fr. Kevin F. O’Shea, who both personally confirmed and candidly filled out the portrait given in Peddicord’s account. 2. Herbert Vorgrimmler, Understanding Karl Rahner: An Introduction to His Life and Thought (New York: Crossroad, 1986); Rudolph Voderholzer, Meet Henri de Lubac: His Life and Work (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2008). 23 Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange (1877–1964) is best known in accounts of the first half of the twentieth century for two very different things. The first is his role in the offensive against the so-called nouvelle théologie movement culminating in the suspension in June 1950 of Henri de Lubac from teaching and publishing, and in the publication of Pius XII’s encyclical Humani Generis (August 1950). The second is his role in supervising the doctoral research of the young Karol Wojtyla—the future pope John Paul II—on St. John of the Cross’s understanding of faith, successfully defended at the Angelicum in 1948.3 In relation to the first, any probing into Garrigou-Lagrange’s confrontation with the theologians of the nouvelle théologie tends to uncover an unhappy tale. His dislike of the driving historical thrust in the works of the likes of Maurice Blondel, Jean Daniélou, and Marie-Dominique Chenu and his suspicion that their philosophy and theology was merely a front for modernist subjectivism, have been well documented.4 So bitter and ad hominem did the polemics become, however, that in a personal letter to his superior in 1947 de Lubac was led to refer to a “dictatorship” and “systematic offensive on the part of Father G.-L., who seeks to provoke scandal everywhere and who is succeeding to a certain degree.”5 On the question of Garrigou-Lagrange’s contact with Wojtyla, a brief comment is worthwhile insofar as it bears upon our topic of deification and the theological anthropology of Vatican II and of subsequent magisterial teaching. Wojtyla had been reading and studying the writings of John of the Cross well before he came under Garrigou-Lagrange’s academic oversight in Rome. Weigel suggests that what followed was a “creative tension,” evident in the dissertation, between two approaches to reading the Carmelite: a Thomistic, speculative reading, fostered by Garrigou-Lagrange, and a more mystical, 3. See Karol Wojtyla, Faith according to St. John of the Cross, trans. J. Aumann (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1981). 4. See John Sullivan, “Fifty Years Under the Cosh: Blondel and Garrigou-Lagrange,” New Blackfriars 93, no. 1043 (2012): 58–70; Fergus Kerr, “A Different World: Neoscholasticism and Its Discontents,” International Journal of Systematic Theology 8, no. 2 (2006): 128–48; Aidan Nichols, “Thomism and the Nouvelle Théologie,” 1–19. Blondel (1861–1949), a philosopher, spearheaded a renaissance in Catholic thought in opposition to the prevailing extrinsicism. He came under fire from Garrigou-Lagrange for “pragmatism” and “meddling” with the traditional definition of truth. Fr. Chenu (1895–1990), a Dominican, did his doctoral studies under Garrigou-Lagrange’s supervision. His manifesto, Une école de théologie: Le Salchoir (1937), had him hauled before a tribunal in Rome headed by Garrigou-Lagrange. 5. Henri de...

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