Der Jansenismus—eine „katholische Häresie”? Das Ringen um Gnade, Rechtfertigung und die Autorität Augustins in der frühen Neuzeit ed. by Dominik Burkard and Tanja Thanner (review)

The book contains eighteen essays dedicated to the controversy on grace and justification in the early-modern period that were discussed in the symposium held in Würzburg on May 12–14, 2011. The symposium examined Jansenism as a European phenomenon of various theological, historical, and political implications. Fourteen essays are in German, one is in French, and three are in English. The book includes an index of abbreviations and acronyms as well as an index of personal names.

Free will is one of the oldest questions of history. In the history of Christianity, it is found mainly in the early-fifth-century controversy between St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430) and Pelagius, and in its theological and ecclesiastical implications. Later the problem of divine grace and human freedom gave renewed rise to considerable theological debates. Finally, the question of justification, focused through the Reformation, acted as a catalyst. Between the emerging denominations in the wake of these debates also a struggle flared for the “heritage” and for the true hermeneutic of Augustine himself. The theological problems of grace led to violent intra-Catholic controversy that eventually culminated in the mid-seventeenth century in the conflict over the Augustinus of Cornelius Jansen (1585–1638). Immediately after the publication of this work, which claimed to be the authentic interpretation of the Church Father, came the prohibition of the Augustinus published by the Roman Index of Prohibited Books. The papal bull Cum occasione (1653) condemned five propositions, taken from the Augustinus, as heretical. The explosive force of this act was enormous between theologians and seemed to condemn the theological position on grace of Augustine. The volume examines the complex, multifaceted phenomenon of Jansenism from the theological initial question and offers the analysis of the reception of Augustine’s thought by main theologians of the modern period such as John Calvin and Martin Luther. The importance of Augustine’s theological thought emerges in this well-documented and nuanced history of Jansenism.

Cornelius P. Mayer analyzes the evolution of Augustine’s thought until the drafting of the Confessiones. Two essays present Augustine’s hermeneutic and the relationship among Luther, Calvin, and Augustine: Otto H. Pesch discusses the ambiguous critique made by Luther, and Karin Scheiber analyzes the main contact points and differences between Calvin and Augustine. Karlheinz Ruhstorfer presents the dispute “de auxiliis” from its origins to the dispute between the Jesuit Luis de Molina and the Dominican Domingo Báñez (unfortunately the author ignores the Italian and French studies on this intriguing subject). Giovanna D’Aniello explains the link between Francisco Suárez and Augustine on the effectiveness of grace. Diana Stanciu’s essay is dedicated to Jansenist concepts of habit and habitual grace, two concepts inspired by Aristotelian philosophy: Jansen could not accept the Aristotelian concept of human nature as defined by virtue or ability to exercise virtue before receiving the aid of grace, as it implied that humans could control salvation. Wim François discusses efficacious grace and predestination in the Bible commentaries of W. H. van Est, Jansen, and Libertus Fromondus. The three theologians could be considered as interesting representatives of a golden age of biblical scholarship in Louvain and Douai, but only Estius is considered by the author as the most skillful of the three, and he was the only who took a strikingly different doctrinal option on efficacious grace solely to the elect. Michael Kalus Wernicke explains the position on the Jansenist controversy expressed by the Eremites of the Augustine order Christian Lupus and Enry Noris. Sylvio Hermann De Franceschi dedicates his research to the presentation of theological ambiguity in the Catholic Thomism of the early-modern age, caused by the proximity...