Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-01T21:28:17.298Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Role of Affectivity in the Theology of Yves Congar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Gabriel Flynn
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Yves M.-J. Congar (1904-1995) was the foremost French theologian of the twentieth century. The severe trials to which he was subjected by Roman Catholic Church authorities, notwithstanding, Congar loved the Church. As he explained to Jean Puyo in 1975: I am of the Church. I love the Church.’ This love is based on a simple yet profound truth that he recognised the Church as the Mother, the hearth and the homeland of his spiritual being. Congar’s love for the Church, motivated by his love for Christ, is situated in the wider setting of his love for humankind. It is difficult to avoid an admiration for his shrewd insistence on the need to locate the maternal and fraternal dimensions of the Church’s nature, seen as perfectly compatible, in a communion ecclesiology. A communitarian, ecclesial milieu is correctly identified as essential for the formation of Christians:

Maternal, the Church is also fraternal. It is a fraternity. The two qualities are perfectly compatible, evangelically speaking, because in the spiritual plan, they are united in communion: as in a text like Matthew 12. 50 (Mark 3. 35; Luke 8. 21). Better: it is the fraternity which exercises here a maternity, as it is said so often by Saint Augustine and many others. This does not take away anything from a particular paternity of priests and pastors who can say with Saint Paul: ‘It is I who, through the gospel, begot you in Jesus Christ’ (1 Cor. 4. 15). This signifies that if, taken individually, we are sons of the Church, we form collectively or rather as a community, this ecclesial milieu which we have seen is the generator and educator of Christians.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 83 , Issue 977-978 , July 2002 , pp. 347 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 See Yves M.‐J. Congar, Dialogue between Christians: Catholic Contributions to Ecumenism, trans, by Philip Loretz (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1966), p. 43. Chrétiens en dialogue: contributions catholiques à l'oecuménisme, Unam Sanctam, 50 (Paris: Cerf, 1964), p. LV. Following the initial citation, the page numbers of works in the original language will be given in round brackets.

2 Jean Puyo, Jean Puyo interroge le Père Congar: ‘une vie pour la vérité’ (Paris: Centurion, 1975), p. 185.

3 Congar, , ‘Pourquoi j'aime l'Église’, Communion: Verbum Caro, 24 (1970), 23–30 (p. 23)Google Scholar.

4 Congar, ‘Pourquoi j'aime l'Église’, p. 25.

5 Congar, ‘Pourquoi j'aime l'Église’, p. 26.

6 Le Guillou, M.‐J., ‘Yves Congar’, in Bilan de la théologie du XXe siècle, ed. by Gucht, Robert Vander and Vorgrimler, Herbert, 2 vols (Paris: Casterman, 1970), II, pp. 791–805 (p. 792)Google Scholar.

7 Congar, ‘Pourquoi j'aime l'Église’, p. 30.

8 See Weigel, Gustave, ‘The Historical Background of the Encyclical Humani Generis’, Theological Studies, 12 (1951), 208–230 (p. 217)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Pius, XII, False Trends In Modern Teaching: Encyclical Letter (Humani Generis), trans, by Knox, Ronald A., rev. edn (London: Catholic Truth Society, 1959)Google Scholar.

10 See Siefer, Gregor, The Church and Industrial Society: A survey of the Worker‐Priest Movement and its implications for the Christian Mission, trans. by Isabel and McHugh, Florence (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1964)Google Scholar. Die Mission der Arbeiterpriester (Essen: Driewer, 1960). Thomas, Joseph, ‘Prêtres‐ouvriers aujourd'hui’, Études, 359 (1983), 245–257Google Scholar. Leprieur, François, Quand Rome condamne: Dominicains et prêtresouvriers (Paris: Cerf, 1989)Google Scholar. Leprieur, , ‘France in 1953–4: Do the baptised have rights? The Worker‐Priest Crisis’, New Blackfriars, 80 (1999), 384–396CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 Le Guillou, ‘Yves Congar’, p. 793.

12 Congar, , This Church That I Love, trans, by Delafuente, Lucien (Denville, NJ: Dimension Books, 1969), p. 7Google Scholar. Cette Église que j'aime, Foi Vivante, 70 (Paris: Cerf, 1968), p. 7.

13 Congar, , ‘Reflections on being a Theologian’, trans, by Lefébure, Marcus, New Blackfriars, 62 (1981), 405–409 (pp. 405–406)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See Congar, , ‘St. Thomas Aquinas and the Spirit of Ecumenism’, New Blackfriars, 55 (1974), 196–209CrossRefGoogle Scholar. ‘Saint Thomas d'Aquin et l'esprit oecumenique’, Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Theologie, 21 (1974), 331–346Google Scholar. Patrick Granfield, Theologians at Work (New York: Macmillan; London: Collier‐Macmillan, 1967), p. 253.

14 Congar, , ‘Where Are We in the Expression of the Faith?’, trans. by Livingstone, Dinah, Concilium, 170 (1983), 85–87Google Scholar (p. 86).

15 Congar, , Called to Life (Slough: St Paul; New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1988), p. 88Google Scholar. Appelés à la vie (Paris: Cerf, 1985), p. 95.

16 Congar, , Laity, Church and World: Three addresses by Yves Congar, trans. by Attwater, Donald (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1960)Google Scholar. Si, vous êtes mes témoins: trois conférences sur laïcat, Église et monde (Paris: Cerf, 1959)Google Scholar.

17 Congar, , The Wide World My Parish: Salvation and its Problems, trans, by Attwater, Donald (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1961), p. 23Google Scholar. Vaste monde ma paroisse: vérité et dimensions du salut (Paris: Témoignage Chrétien, 1959), p. 34Google Scholar.

18 Congar, , ‘Where Are We in the Expression of the Faith?’, Concilium, 170 (1983), p. 86Google Scholar.

19 Congar, This Church That I Love, p. 115 (p. 121).

20 Congar, , ‘Letter from Father Yves Congar, O.P.’, trans. by John Zawilla, Ronald, Theology Digest, 32 (1985), 213–216 (p. 215)Google Scholar. See Fifty Years of Catholic Theology: Conversations with Yves Congar, ed. by Lauret, Bernard, trans, by Bowden, John (London: S.C.M., 1988), p. 14Google Scholar. Entretiens d'automne, 2nd edn (Paris: Cerf, 1987), p. 22. Congar indicates that he also worked on Lumen gentium no. 17 and on the Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church no. 7 concerning the interpretation of the Catholic dogma Extra ecclesiam nulla salus. Dulles, Avery, ‘The Essence of Catholicism: Protestant and Catholic Perspectives’, Thomist, 48 (1984), 607–633 (p. 633)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Subilia, Vittorio, The Problem of Catholicism, trans. by Kissack, Reginald (London: S.C.M., 1964), p. 95Google Scholar. II Problema del Cattolicesimo (Turin: Claudiana, 1962).

22 Congar, , ‘Autour du renouveau de l'ecclésiologie: la collection “Unam Sanctam”’, Vie Intellectuelle, 51 (1939), 9–32 (pp. 9–10)Google Scholar.

23 Congar, ‘Autour du renouveau de l'ecclésiologie’, p. 11. Columba Marmion (1858–1923), Abbot of Maredsous, Belgium. Irish by birth, he was a gifted writer and spiritual director. See Tiemey, Mark, Dom Columba Marmion: A Biography (Dublin: Columba, 1994)Google Scholar.

24 Congar, ‘Autour du renouveau de l'ecclésiologie’, p. 11.

25 Congar, Sainte Église: études et approches ecclésiologiques, Unam Sanctam, 41 (Paris: Cerf, 1963), p. 552.

26 Congar, , Christ, Our Lady and the Church: A study in Eirenic Theology, trans. with an introduction by St.John, Henry (London: Longmans, Green, 1957)Google Scholar. Le Christ, Marie et l'Église (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1952)Google Scholar.

27 See Caillon, C., ‘Y. Congar, Le Christ, Marie et l'Église’, Lumière et Vie, 16(1954), 135–136 (p. 135)Google Scholar.

28 See Avis, Paul D. L., ‘Ecclesiology’, in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Thought, ed. by McGrath, Alister E. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993), pp. 127–134 (p. 131)Google Scholar. von Balthasar, Hans Urs, The Theology of Karl Barth: Exposition and Interpretation, trans. by Oakes, Edward T. (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1992), pp. 387, 389Google Scholar. Karl Barth: Darstellung und Deutung Seiner Theologie (Cologne: Hegner, 1951)Google Scholar.

29 Caillon, ‘Y. Congar, Le Christ, Marie et l'Église’, p. 136.

30 Congar, Christ, Our Lady and the Church, pp. 38–39 (pp. 46–47).

31 See Congar, Christ, Our Lady and the Church, p. 30 (pp. 37–38).

32 Congar, Christ, Our Lady and the Church, pp. 19, 27 (pp. 26, 35).

33 Congar, Christ, Our Lady and the Church, p. 31 (pp. 38–39).

34 See Schilling, S. Paul, Contemporary Continental Theologians (London: S.C.M., 1966), p. 189Google Scholar.

35 See Congar, , ‘L'hérésie, déchirement de l'unité, in L'Église est une: hommage à Moehler, ed. by Chaillet, Pierre (Paris: Bloud & Gay, 1939), pp. 255–269 (pp. 256–257, 262)Google Scholar.

36 Congar, , ‘Letter from Father Yves Congar, O.P.’, Theology Digest, 32 (1985), pp. 213–214Google Scholar.

37 Congar, La Foi et la Théologie, Théologie dogmatique, 1 (Tournai: Desclée, 1962), p. 271.

38 Congar, , ‘L'Esprit des Pères d'après Moehler’, Supplément à la ‘Vie Spirituelle’, 55 (1938), 1–25 (p. 2)Google Scholar.

39 Congar, , ‘Tendances actuelles de la pensée religieuse’, Cahiers du monde nouveau, 4 (1948), 33–50Google Scholar. Daniélou, Jean, ‘Les orientations présentes de la pensée religieuse’, Études, 249 (1946), 5–21Google Scholar.

40 See Aubert, Roger, La Théologie Catholique au milieu du XXe siècle (Tournai: Casterman, 1954), p. 11Google Scholar.

41 See Aubert, La Théologie Catholique, p. 31.

42 See Aubert, La Théologie Catholique, p. 34.

43 See Bouyer, Louis, ‘Le Renouveau des études patristiques’, Vie Intellectuelle, 15 (1947), 6–25Google Scholar.

44 See Murray, John Courtney, ‘Sources Chrétiennes’, Theological Studies, 9 (1948), 250–255 (pp. 250–251)Google Scholar.

45 Aubert, La Théologie Catholique, pp. 38–39.

46 Aubert, La Théologie Catholique, pp. 7–8.

47 See Lindbeck, George, ‘Ecumenical Theology’, in The Modem Theologians: An Introduction to Christian Theology in the Twentieth Century, ed. by Ford, David F., 2 vols (Oxford: Blackwell, 1989), II, pp. 255–273 (p. 258)Google Scholar.

48 See Lindbeck, ‘Ecumenical Theology’, pp. 258–259.

49 Congar, , ‘Letter from Father Yves Congar, O.P.’, Theology Digest, 32 (1985), p. 215Google Scholar.

50 Congar, ‘II faut construire l'Église en nous’, Témoignage Chrétien, 7 July 1950, p. 1.

51 Congar, ‘Le prophète Péguy’, Témoignage Chrétien, 26 August 1949, p. 1. See Turbanti, Giovanni, ‘The Attitude of the Church to the Modern World at and after Vatican II’, trans. by Bear, Mortimer, Concilium (1992/6), 87–96 (p. 87)Google Scholar.

52 Congar, ‘Autour du renouveau de l'ecclésiologie’, Vie Intellectuelle, 51 (1939), p. 11. See Nichols, Aidan, ‘Yves Congar’ in The Modern Theologians: An Introduction to Christian Theology in the Twentieth Century, ed. by Ford, I, pp. 219–236 (p. 224)Google Scholar.

53 Congar, , ‘L'Esprit des Pères d'après Moehler’, Supplément à la ‘Vie Spirituelle’, 55 (1938), p. 12Google Scholar.

54 Lindbeck, , ‘Ecumenical Theology’ in The Modern Theologians, ed. by Ford, II, p. 258Google Scholar.

55 For a history of modernism, see Rivière, J., ‘Modernisme’, in Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. by Vacant, A., Mangenot, E., and Amann, É., 15 vols (Paris: Letouzey and Ané, 1929), X Part II, columns 2009–2047Google Scholar.

56 See Haight, Roger D., ‘The Unfolding of Modernism in France: Blonde), Laberthonnière, Le Roy’, Theological Studies, 35 (1974), 632–666 (p. 633)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Buonaiuti, Ernesto, ‘The Future of Catholicism’ in Pilgrim of Rome: An Introduction to the Life and Work of Ernesto Buonaiuti, ed. by Nelson, Claud and Pittenger, Norman, 1st edn (Welwyn, Herts: Nisbet, 1969), pp. 102–104 (p. 102)Google Scholar. Tyrrell, George, Medievalism: A Reply to Cardinal Mercier (Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Burns & Oates, 1994), p. 158Google Scholar. Hulshof, Jan, ‘The Modernist Crisis: Alfred Loisy and George Tyrrell’, trans. by Westow, Theo, Concilium, 113 (1979), 28–39 (pp. 28–30)Google Scholar.

57 See Roman Catholic Modernism, ed. and introduced by Reardon, Bernard M. G. (London: Black, 1970), p. 10Google Scholar.

58 See Congar, , A History of Theology, trans. and ed. by Guthrie, Hunter (New York: Doubleday, 1968), pp. 190–191Google Scholar. ‘Théologie’, in Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, ed. by Vacant, Mangenot, and Amann (Paris: Letouzey and Ané, 1946), XV Part 1, columns 341–502 (col. 440)Google Scholar. Congar, La Foi et la Théologie, p. 270.

59 Puyo, Jean Puyo interroge le Père Congar, p. 38.

60 Puyo, Jean Puyo interroge le Pere Congar, p. 36.

61 See Congar, , Tradition and Traditions: An historical and a theological essay, (hereafter TT), trans. by Naseby, Michael and Rainborough, Thomas (London: Burns & Oates, 1966), pp. 214–216Google Scholar. La Tradition et les traditions: essai historique, (hereafter TT, I) (Paris: Fayard, 1960), pp. 264–266Google Scholar. La Tradition et les traditions: essai théologique, (hereafter TT, II) (Paris: Fayard, 1963)Google Scholar.

62 TT, p. 216 (TT, I, pp. 265–266). See Blondel, Maurice, ‘Histoire et dogme’, La Quinzaine, 56 (1904), 145–167, 349–373, 433–458Google Scholar.

63 Congar, A History of Theology, p. 191 (col. 440).

64 Congar, A History of Theology, p. 191 (col. 440).

65 The substance of this course is to be found in his: La Foi et la Théologie.

66 Congar, A History of Theology, p. 192 (col. 441). See Congar, La Foi et la Théologie, pp. 270–272.

67 Congar, La Foi et la Théologie, p. 272.

68 See X, Pius, Encyclical Letter (Pascendi): on the Doctrines of the Modernists to which is added the decree (Lamentabili) of July 4, 1907, on Modernist Errors (London: Catholic Truth Society, 1937)Google Scholar. Chadwick, Owen, A History of the Popes 1830‐1914 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), pp. 346–359CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

69 Congar, , The Mystery of the Church: Studies by Yves Congar, trans. by Littledale, A. V., 2nd edn, rev. (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1965), p. 27Google Scholar, Esquisses du mystère de l'Église, new edn, Unam Sanctam, 8 (Paris: Cerf, 1953), p. 26Google Scholar.

70 Congar, , ‘Letter from Father Yves Congar, O.P.’, Theology Digest, 32 (1985), p. 214Google Scholar. See Weigel, , ‘The Historical Background of the Encyclical Humani Generis’, Theological Studies, 12 (1951), p. 217CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

71 Weigel, ‘The Historical Background of the Encyclical Humani Generis’, pp. 219–220. For Congar's response to Weigel's negative assessment of the ‘nouvelle théologie’ see Congar, , ‘Bulletin de théologie dogmatique’, Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques, 35 (1951), 591–603 (p. 596, note 12)Google Scholar. Pierre‐Marie Gy, sometime colleague and friend of Congar, describes Congar's criticism of the term ‘nouvelle théologie’ in a personal note to me dated 9 July 1998. He comments that for Congar, as also for Chenu, ‘l'appellation de “nouvelle théologie” et l'enumération de ses représentants étaient artificielles, polémiques, étrangères à la réalité’.

72 Martina, Giacomo, ‘The Historical Context in Which the Idea of a New Ecumenical Council Was Born’, in Vatican II: Assessment and Perspectives Twenty ‐ Five Years After (1962‐1987), ed. by Latourelle, René, 3 vols (New York: Paulist Press, 1988), I, pp. 3–73 (p. 31)Google Scholar.

73 See Congar, , Tradition and the Life of the Church, Faith and Fact Books, 3 (London: Burns & Oates, 1964), pp. 144–155Google Scholar. La tradition et la vie de l'Église, 2nd edn, Traditions chrétiennes, 18 (Paris: Cerf, 1984), pp. 117–125Google Scholar.

74 Weigel, ‘The Historical Background of the Encyclical Humani Generis’, p. 217. Fouilloux, , La Collection “Sources Chrétiennes”: éditer les Pères de l'Église au XXe siècle (Paris: Cerf, 1995), pp. 115–116Google Scholar.

75 Labourdette, M.‐Michel, ‘La Theologie et ses sources’, Revue Thomiste, 46 (1946), 353–371Google Scholar. Labourdette, , ‘La Théologie, intelligence de la foi’, Revue Thomiste, 46 (1946), 5–44Google Scholar. Garrigou‐Lagrange, Réginald, ‘La nouvelle théologie où va‐t‐elle’, Angelicum 23 (1946), 126–145Google Scholar. See Schoof, Mark, Breakthrough: Beginnings of the New Catholic Theology, trans. by Smith, N. D. (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1970), p. 108Google Scholar. Aggiornamento (Baarn: Het Wereldvenster, ‘[n.d.]’)Google Scholar.

76 Pius XII, False Trends In Modern Teaching (Humani Generis). See Nichols, , ‘Balthasar, his Christology, and the Mystery of Easter’ in Balthasar, Von, Mysterium Paschale: The Mystery of Easter, trans. with an introduction by Nichols (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1990), pp. 1–10 (p. 2)Google Scholar.

77 See Puyo, Jean Puyo interroge le Père Congar, pp. 106–113.

78 McBrien, Richard P., Catholicism, new edn, rev. (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1994), p. 50Google Scholar.

79 Congar, À mes frères, Foi Vivante, 71 (Paris: Cerf, 1968), p. 210.

80 Congar, , ‘L'Avenir de l'Église’, in L'Avenir: semaine des intellectuels catholiques (6 au 12 novembre 1963), ed. by Lacombe, M. Olivier and others (Paris: Fayard, 1964), pp. 207–221 (p. 208)Google Scholar.