Essonne
Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
) was a progressive
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
and one of the founders of the reformist journal '' Concilium''.
Essonne
Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.Corbeil.
Chenu entered the French Province of the
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of ...
in 1913, taking the name Marie-Dominique and studying at Le Saulchoir, which at the time was located (as a result of the French anti-Church laws of 1905-1906) at Kain in
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
and the suspension of teaching at Le Saulchoir, Chenu travelled to
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
in 1914 to study at the Pontificium Collegium Internationale Angelicum, the future Angelicum. While at the Angelicum, Chenu was ordained in 1919 and completed his doctorate in theology in 1920 under the direction of Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange with a dissertation entitled ''De contemplatione, ''which studied the meaning of contemplation in
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino, Italy, Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest who was an influential List of Catholic philo ...
.
Career
In 1920 Chenu was appointed Professor of the History of Dogma at Le Saulchoir (and in late 1921 turned down a request from his doctoral supervisor Garrigou-Lagrange's to return to the Angelicum as a lecturer). He began to develop his theological perspective replacing the non-historical approach to
Thomism
Thomism is the philosophical and theological school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, Aquinas' disputed questions ...
that he had learned from Garrigou-Lagrange at the ''Angelicum'' with an historicist reading of Aquinas. At ''Le Saulchoir'' he was the teacher of Dominicans
Yves Congar
Yves Marie-Joseph Congar (; 13 April 1904 – 22 June 1995) was a French Dominican friar, priest, and theologian. He is perhaps best known for his influence at the Second Vatican Council and for reviving theological interest in the Holy Spiri ...
and Edward Schillebeeckx.
In 1930 Chenu founded the ''Institut d'Etudes Médiévales de Montréal.''
Chenu served as rector of Le Saulchoir from 1932 to 1942, and was therefore very involved in the move of Le Saulchoir from Belgium to Étoilles, near Paris, in 1937.
In 1937 Chenu privately issued a book entitled ''Une école de théologie: Le Saulchoir''. In February 1938 he was called to Rome and reprimanded for this work. Then, in 1942, ''Une école de théologie'' was placed on the Vatican's Index of Forbidden Books because of its ideas about the role of historical studies in theology. He was removed as rector of Le Saulchoir. He would never again teach there. Friends got him a post at the École des Hautes Études in Paris, and he subsequently taught at the Sorbonne and the Institut catholique de Paris.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s he became involved, as a friar-preacher, in the nascent worker-priest movement, and its attempts to evangelize the anti-clerical industrial suburbs of Paris. Eventually, in 1953, Chenu was among the French Dominicans disciplined by the Master of their Order, Suárez, supposedly to save them from worse treatment by the Vatican. He was expelled from Paris and moved to Rouen, only being allowed to return to the Dominican convent of Saint-Jacques in Paris in June 1962.
According to Christoph F. Potworowski, for Chenu the incarnation is the means by which God acts within and on behalf of creation. Chenu acted at the
Second Vatican Council
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...
(1962–65) where he was influential in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (''
Gaudium et spes
''Gaudium et spes'' (, "Joy and Hope"), the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, is one of the four constitutions resulting from the Second Vatican Council in 1965. It was the last and longest published document from the cou ...
'').
Influence
Chenu was a forerunner of the ''ressourcement'' in theology that preceded the reforms of Vatican II. Chenu played a large role in the reappropriation of historic theological sources that led to the '' nouvelle théologie''. In particular he promoted the return to
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino, Italy, Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest who was an influential List of Catholic philo ...
as a source, but rejected 19th-century "modern scholastic" theology.
Although his book ''Une école de la théologie: Le Saulchoir'' was put on the ''
Index librorum prohibitorum
The ''Index Librorum Prohibitorum'' ("List of Prohibited Books") was a list of publications deemed heretical or contrary to morality by the Sacred Congregation of the Index (a former Dicastery of the Roman Curia), and Catholics were forbid ...
'' in 1942 by
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...
and the
Holy Office
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of the Holy Office in Rome. It was founded to defend the Catholic Church from heresy and is the body responsible f ...
, he was later exonerated and his theology embraced by the fathers of the Second Vatican Council.
Chenu can be credited with being the grandfather of the liberation theology movement, since Gustavo Gutiérrez of
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = National seal
, national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
, who wrote the first book on liberation theology, studied with Chenu at the Institut Catholique de Paris, and cites him numerous times in his ground breaking book. Gutiérrez moved to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and become a member of the same Dominican community that Chenu belonged to.
In addition, Chenu was teacher to the American Dominican
Matthew Fox
Matthew Chandler Fox (born July 14, 1966) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Charlie Salinger on '' Party of Five'' (1994–2000) and Jack Shephard on the drama series ''Lost'' (2004–2010), the latter of which earned h ...
, since expelled from the order by Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...
and now an Episcopal priest, who is recognized as the launcher of the
creation spirituality
Timothy James Fox (born December 21, 1940) is an American priest and theologian. Formerly a member of the Dominican Order within the Catholic Church, he became a member of the Episcopal Church following his expulsion from the order in 1993.
Fox ...
movement. It was Pere Chenu who introduced Fox to that tradition and who supported Fox for many years upon his return to America. Thus Chenu can also be called the grandfather of the creation spirituality movement.
Bibliography
The following titles are a selection of the works published by Chenu.
Selected works
* ''De contemplatione''. Thèse de doctorat Angelicum, Rome 1920. Édition par Carmelo Giuseppe CONTICELLO
* "Position de la théologie," ''Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques'' 24 (1935): 252 ff., rpt. as ''La foi dans l'intelligence'' in Chenu's ''La parole de Dieu'', vol. 1, pp. 115–138
* ''Une école de théologie: le Saulchoir'' (Étiolles: Le Saulchoir, 1937; rpt. Paris: Cerf, 1985)
* ''La théologie comme science au XIIIe siècle'' (Paris, 1943; 3rd ed., Paris: Vrin, 1957)
* ''Introduction a l'étude de Saint Thomas d'Aquin'' (Montreal: Institut d'études médiévales, 1950), trans. Albert M. Landry and Dominic Hughes as ''Toward Understanding Saint Thomas'' (Chicago: Regnery, 1964)
* ''La théologie au douzième siècle'' (Paris: Vrin, 1957), selection ed. and trans. Jerome Taylor and Lester Little as ''Nature, Man and Society in the Twelfth Century: Essays on New Theological Perspectives in the Latin West'' (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1968)
* ''St Thomas d'Aquin et la théologie'' (Paris, 1959), trans. Paul Philibert as ''Aquinas and His Role in Theology'' (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2002)
* ''La Théologie est-elle une science?'' (Paris: Fayard, 1959), trans. A. H. N. Green-Armytage as ''Is Theology a Science?'' (New York: Hawthorn, 1959)
* ''Le Parole de Dieu'', 2 vols. (Paris: Cerf, 1964), trans. Denis Hickey as ''Faith and Theology'' (New York: Macmillan, 1968)
* "Pour une théologie du travail" (Paris: Seuil, 1965), trans. Lilian Soiron as ''The Theology of Work: An Exploration'' (Chicago: Regnery, 1966)
* "A conversation with Père Chenu", ''Dominicana'' 50 (1965): 141 ff.
* ''Peuple de Dieu dans le monde'' (Paris: Cerf, 1966)
* ''Jacques Duquesne interroge le Père Chenu: un théologien en liberté'' (Paris,
Éditions du Centurion
The Éditions du Centurion are a French publishing house established in Paris, 3, rue Bayard, in 1945 by the Assumptionists fathers of the "Maison de la Bonne Presse" which became Bayard Presse in 1969.
It then became an autonomous department of ...