from 1879
Thomism from Leo XIII to Ressourcement Thomism: Aeterni Patris, Nouvelle théologie, retrieval
Ressourcement Thomism is a trend of theologians who reassess Aquinas’s contribution in his historical and contemporary context. It grew out of three movements: Leonine Thomism after Aeterni Patris (1879), the Nouvelle théologie of de Lubac and Daniélou (1940s) and the historical study of Aquinas (Gilson, Chenu, Torrell). Its representatives (Levering, Bonino, Emery, Marshall, Gaine, White and others) seek to restore Aquinas as a living tradition, engage Protestants, and debate Barth, Rahner and Balthasar.
Key points
- White: Ressourcement Thomism is an emergent trend of theologians reassessing Aquinas’s contribution in his historical context and in the present. It is best understood against three earlier movements: Leonine Thomism, the Nouvelle théologie of the 1940s and the ‘Thomasian’ historical study of Aquinas. Leonine Thomism answered Aeterni Patris (1879), with centres in Rome, Leuven, Toulouse, Fribourg and later Toronto and Santiago. The Nouvelle théologie (de Lubac, Daniélou; Sources Chrétiennes, 1942) faulted scholasticism for narrowness and returned to patristic exegesis. The ‘Thomasians’ (Gilson, Chenu, Torrell) set Aquinas in his medieval context as a theologian and exegete, not a metaphysician. Unlike them, Ressourcement Thomists assert a living Thomist tradition and study Renaissance and baroque commentators (Cajetan, Báñez); the movement selectively synthesizes its three predecessors and is widely ecumenical: it engages Protestant scripture scholars and theologians. Its sources include the virtue ethics of Pinckaers, MacIntyre and Cessario: a genealogy of virtue theory and Aquinas compared with modern alternatives. Levering reads Aquinas first as a scriptural theologian (sacra doctrina) and founded the English edition of the journal Nova et Vetera. Bonino, Emery and Marshall defend the classical doctrine of God and the Trinity against post-Hegelian kenotic and analytic revisionist theology. Christology: Gaine, White and Legge write treatises on Aquinas; White sees Rahner’s Christology as leaning toward Nestorianism. Anthropology: Schenk, Hütter, Blankenhorn and Feingold; Feingold contests de Lubac’s and Rahner’s reading of the natural desire to see God. Ecclesiology and sacraments: de la Soujeole, Perrier and Lynch; the Church as ‘sign and instrument’ of salvation read through three levels of sacrament. Ressourcement Thomism is a ‘sociological category’ for a growing trend: historical and exegetical, yet more metaphysical than the ‘Thomasians’.
People
- Thomas Aquinas
- Leo XIII
- Henri de Lubac
- Jean Daniélou
- Étienne Gilson
- Marie-Dominique Chenu
- Jean-Pierre Torrell
- Servais Pinckaers
- Alasdair MacIntyre
- Romanus Cessario
- Matthew Levering
- Serge-Thomas Bonino
- Gilles Emery
- Bruce Marshall
- Simon Gaine
- Thomas Joseph White
- Dominic Legge
- Lawrence Feingold
- Karl Rahner
Place
Rome, Leuven, Toulouse, Fribourg, Toronto, Santiago