Fr Arockia Rayappan –
At the beginning of the 20th century, Catholics in France lived through the separation of State and Church, an anti-clerical campaign, the expulsion of women and men religious from the country, and the dismantling of the legal privilege of the Church by the proclamation of the Ferry Decree. They boldly offered a catholic response to the political, social, and intellectual challenges of the 20th century. This witnessed a genuine engagement of Catholics in public life and peace with modernity by the Catholic Church.
During this time, the theologians of the Nouvelle théologie faced titanic challenges both from the state and the Church including harsh captivity, time of disgrace, and papal condemnations by the authorities who represented Roman Imperialism. The project of the Nouvelle théologie in the 1940s was a fruition of relationships, institutions, friendship, and mentorship in exile. The theologians of the Nouvelle théologie made a huge contribution to the process that led to the announcement of the Second Vatican Council. Due to its commitment to returning to the sources of the Tradition, it set the foundation and the ignition for the revitalization of modern Catholicism. Through their primary methods of ressourcement and aggiornamento making use of Patristic writings and of Thomistic Scholasticism, it reimagined the nature of the Church and its relationship to political order. It shaped the intellectual vision that laid the theological foundation for the formulation of the documents of the Council.
The Nouvelle théologie brought Catholicism into the twentieth century through the many determined and resolute efforts of a group of Jesuits led by Henri de Lubac, along with the Dominicans Marie-Dominique Chenu and Yves Congar who “returned to the medieval and ancient sources of the Catholic tradition to find resources for an authentically Catholic modernity.” The Nouvelle théologie, so as to say, conscientized the participants of the Council, and the members of the varied drafting commissions well in advance.
The Nouvelle theologians helped to enshrine the key tenets of the Nouvelle théologie in the documents of the Council Here are some of its significant contributions: ressourcement and aggiornamento are disseminated in the Catholic Church beyond France. The efforts of returning to the ancient sources of the Catholic tradition enabled the Catholic theology to dialogue with the modern world. RESSOURCEMENT and AGGIORNAMENTO would eventually become the guiding principles behind the Council.
The New Evangelization, promoted by Saint Pope John Paul II and his successors, is also a direct result of the Nouvelle théologie on the pastoral response of the Catholic Church to what would be the pastoral concerns and challenges of the 21st century. Most of the people in the Christian community understood the impact of the Nouvelle théologie in France as the work of the Holy Spirit! It was an apt response to make the Church relevant to the world. It indeed withstood the challenges and hurdles and had a profound impact on the formulation of the documents of the Council.
The most significant impact of the Nouvelle théologie on the Council, however, was manifested in the broader spirit and tone of the documents. We see this, especially in the theological methodology they adopted – what Chenu called their inductive approach – which gave new prominence to the role of history in the life of the Church. It was most clearly on display in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes which broke new ground by proceeding from an examination of the contemporary historical situation and interpreting the Church’s mission in the light of the signs of the times.
This meant acknowledging that the Church was a historical reality and that changing circumstances called for new pastoral approaches. These innovations, justified by appealing to the Scripture and the Church Fathers, are an indication that the Council was equally committed to returning to the sources of the Tradition. Here we can glimpse perhaps the most profound effect of the Nouvelle théologie on the Council.
Embracing ressourcement in turn transformed the very style and language of the documents of the Council. The conciliar texts departed dramatically from the juridical, abstract language of scholastic disputation that had dominated previous councils, encyclicals, and of course the early draft documents i.e., schemas. Instead, they adopted the pastoral style of the Church Fathers. These stylistic choices reflected and communicated the spirit of the Council. Ressourcement was “the most traditional yet potentially the most radical” of the various approaches to change invoked at the Council. It was possible because of the immense contribution of the stalwarts of the members of the Society of Jesus and the Order of Preachers who were the leading theological advisors at the Council – a landmark event in the life of the Church and European history more broadly.
The Nouvelle théologie’s appeal to the authority of the Scriptures and the Church Fathers also implicitly challenged the authority of the Vatican, “which gives such authoritative approval to scholastic theology. The spirit of ressourcement and aggiornamento was met with stiff opposition by the ecclesial authorities in Vatican in the form of Roman Imperialism and Roman Theology.
But the presence of Conger and de Lubac in the Preparatory Theological Commission was a strong advocate of theological pluralism. Formulation of Constitutions, Decrees, and Declarations, to which the Nouvelle théologie contributed much, was a clear testimony to the inclusive spirit of the Council.
Congar, Yves. My Journal of the Council. Translated by Denis Minns. Minnesota: ATF Press, 2012.
Daly, Bernard. M. Beyond Secrecy: The Untold Story of Canada and the Second Vatican Council. Ottawa: Novalis, 2003.
de Lubac, Henri. Vatican Council Notebooks: Volume One. Translated by Andrew Stefanelli and Anne Englund Nash. San Francisco: Ignatius, 2015.
Vatican Council Notebooks: Volume Two. Translated by Anne Englund Nash. San Francisco: Ignatius, 2016.
Dulles, Avery. Models of the Church. Northport, New York: Image, 2013.
Faggioli, Massimo. Vatican II: The Battle for Meaning. New York: Paulist Press, 2012.
Flannery, Austin. ed. Vatican II Constitutions Decrees Declarations. New York: Costello Publishing Company, 2007.
Gaillardetz, Richard R. Ecclesiology for a Global Church: A People Called and Sent. New York: Orbis Books, 2008 and Hahnenberg, Edward P. eds. A Church with Open Doors: Catholic Ecclesiology for the Third Millennium. Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2015.
The Cambridge Companion to Vatican II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
Kasper, Walter. The Catholic Church: Nature, Reality and Mission. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark. 2015.
Madges, William. ed. Vatican II Forty Years Later. New York: Orbis Books, 2006.
Rayappan, Arockia. “Conciliar Ecclesiology.” Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection 87, no.11 (November 2023): 843-862.
Shortall, Sarah. Soldiers of God in a Secular World: Catholic Theology and Twentieth-Century French Politics. London: Harvard University Press, 2021.
Arockia Rayappan is a priest of Delhi Archdiocese and a Ph.D. student at Concordia University, Canada. His doctoral research explores practical, resourceful, and sustainable ways to foster social and religious harmony through Basic Ecclesial Communities in the contemporary Indian multi-cultural, pluri-religious, social, economic, and political milieu. He dedicates the articles on Vatican II and Jubilee 2025 to the friends, teachers, professors, formators and spiritual guides at College Platon, Jnana Deepa – Institute of Philosophy and Religion, Papal Seminary, Vishwa Jyoti Gurukul, Vinay Gurukul, Saint Jude Thaddeus’ School, to the victims of the Covid-pandemic, particularly to the late Fr. Isaac who died on April 30, 2021 , during the first wave of Covid-19. The author’s contributions have been published in Indian Catholic Matters, The New Leader, The Voice of Delhi, Dilli Vaani, JDV Times, The Indian Currents, The Herald, The Examiner, News and Views, Ishvani, Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection – VJRT, (Vidyajyoti College, Delhi), The Tablet (Brooklyn, USA), Golden Key – GKA, (Atlanta, USA), and Journal of the Council for Research on Religion – JCREOR, (School of Religious Studies, McGill University, Canada).