CATHOLIC Ressourcement (“return to the sources”) theology arose in the 1930s as part of the flourishing neo-scholasticism promoted by Popes Leo XIII, Pius X, and Pius XII who enthusiastically encouraged the study of St. Thomas Aquinas. Ressourcement theologians were concerned that the then-thriving neothomistic manuals paid insufficient attention to patristic sources and the historical and social contexts of scholastic dogmatic formulations. Mocked by their opponents as encouraging dangerous novelties (“la novelle theologie”), the principal exponents of this “return to the sources” were renowned French Dominicans and Jesuits of the faculties of Le Saulchoir in Paris and Fourvière in Lyon, including: the Dominicans Marie-Dominique Chenu (1895-1990) and Yves Congar (1904-95); the Jesuits Jean Daniélou (1905-74), Henri de Lubac (1896-1991) and Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-88); and the Oratorian, Louis Bouyer (1913-2004). The 1950 encyclical Humani Generis of Pius XII warned against “false historicism,” especially with regard to Thomistic philosophy, and had a significant, if temporary, dampening effect on the movement
This ressourcement had been foreshadowed in the late nineteenth century both in the writings of St. John Henry Cardinal Newman and in the burgeoning liturgical movement. The benefits of a return to original liturgical sources had been exemplified in the historical and popular liturgical writings of Dom Prosper Gueranger, OSB (1805-75), restorer of French Benedictine monasticism, and in the patristic liturgical contributions of Dom Lambert Beauduin, OSB (1873–1960), founder of the Abbey of Amay/Chevtogne in Belgium.
Following the Second Vatican Council the advocates of ressourcement, now included the future Popes John Paul II (1920-[1978-]2005) and Benedict XVI (1927-[2005]-2013): they are often referred to as communio theologians, who highlight historical-doctrinal continuity with the past. They are frequently contrasted with concilium theologians, such as Karl Rahner, who emphasize the future-oriented “Spirit of Vatican II” through dialogue and accommodation with secular culture.
This Webpage was created for a workshop held at Saint Andrew's Abbey, Valyermo, California in 1990
