The Brother I Have Known

THE BROTHER I HAVE KNOWN* WHOEVER CAME TO THE SAULCHOIR would ncounter Father Chenu first in his courses. In philosophy he translated and commented on Aristotle 's Peri psyches. In theology, in his courses on the history of doctrines (a term that he used instead of " the history of dogmas"), he treated the subject matter in relation to the doctrinal courses, while also .adding a few classes " extra formam ." Of these latter I particularly recall one on the Fa.ith and Constitution Movement (the Conference of Lausanne had just taken place in 1927) and several on Mohler and the Catholic school of Tiibingen, which opened up one of the sources from which I subsequently drew much that inspired my own work. To this may be added the optional courses given in the afternoon, which were the most interesting. The course on the history of doctrines was marked by the strong conviction of a man who believed in ideas with his whole being. One of the people who was responsible for his having come under suspicion told me one day that Father Chenu did not hold for metaphysics and affected an all-embracing relativism. I have encountered few people, however, who believed as he did in intelligence, in its act and in intellectuality . The history of doctrines, as he taught it to us, was the history of the search for truth; it was a drama in which one discovered how the great minds had stumbled in their quest for the knowledge of the truth, or had added to it-and what problems were their point of departure and how they *Editor's note: When invited to contribute to this issue of '.l'he '.l'homist celebrating the 90th birthday of Father Chenu, Congar sent us this essay, written to honor Chenu in 1964 and never before published. It dates from the period of the Second Vatican Council when these two great Dominicans were colleagues in Rome. Translated from the French with minor revisions by Boniface Ramsey, O.P. 495 496 YVES M.-J, CONGAR, O.P. construed them, and with what presuppositions, misunderstandings and perceptions they had approached their task. One lived the problems in their contexts, as great questions of truth that had in fact anguished the spirit. Nothing was more doctrinal than these purely historical courses. Father Chenu wrote that he had entered the Order of Saint Dominic for the sake of the contemplative life. Thus, totally open to his fellow human beings in the world, he was intensely a man of meditation. It is in this context and with this magnificent resource that he was present to men and women and to their problems. Reflection of a philosophic kind assures theology and every response that may be proposed of a depth that, without it, cannot be attained. This is a reflection on the givens of problems and on the concepts that are at issue therein. It permits responses to be renewed by taking the question further. It presupposes a profound intellectual life that is not at the mercy of the superficial flow of the sensations and of information. I can picture Father Chenu now, at the Saulchoir in Kain (Belgium) , coming downstairs every day at about 4: 30 in the afternoon to take a meditative and reflective walk in the park. I can see him now, always alert and reflective, scribbling in a little notebook or on the back of an envelope a few words suggested by what he was listening to. A constant nourishment from within permitted him to make a constant gift of his heart and mind. It was a kind of intellectual generosity on the same plane as his extraordinary openness to others, to every question and to every project upon which he entered, in a spirit both fraternal and collaborative, as if he had nothing to do but that. Etienne Gilson once said of him: "Father Chenu pours himself out in participation." He often sacrificed what could have been his own work for the sake of pouring his wealth into the poverty of others. How many texts that appeared under another name were really by him! During the very difficult time when the worker...