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The Following is adapted from: The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. Cross, Livingstone; (OUP, 1983).
Jean DANIELOU, S.J., (1905-1974), Jesuit theologian. Born at Neuilly-sur-Seine, he became a Jesuit in 1929. He then studied in Jersey, at Lyons (where he came under the influence of Henri de Lubac), and at Mongré, and he received a doctorate from the Sorbonne for a thesis, Platonisme et théologie mystique (1944), on the spiritual theology of St Gregory of Nyssa in whom he had an abiding interest. From 1943 he was a professor at the Institut Catholique in Paris. A peritus at the Second Vatican Council, he was made a cardinal in 1969.
His importance as a theologian rests mainly on his patristic scholarship. In addition to monographs on Origen (1948) and Philo (1958), his work in this field includes his Histoire des Doctrines Chrétiennes avant Nicée (1958–78; Eng. tr., 1964–77). In the first volume and in several other works he explored the Jewish roots of Christianity. Closely connected with this interest was his work on patristic exegesis, notably in Sacramentum Futuri (1950; Eng. tr., 1960), in which he popularized the distinction between allegory and types. He also contributed to the patristic revival of the 20th cent. by his promotion of a number of publishing ventures; these included, together with his Jesuit confrere Henri de Lubac, the collection,Sources Chrétiennes, an important series of patristic and medieval texts, with French translation, of which the first volume (because of wartime difficulties containing only the French translation) was issued in 1942.
A collection of his Carnets spirituels ed. M.-J. Rondeau (1993). Epektasis: Mélanges patristiques offerts au cardinal Jean Daniélou, ed. J. Fontaine and C. Kannengiesser (1972), incl. ‘bibliographic patristique’, pp. 675–89. M.-J. Rondeau and others, Jean Daniélou 1905–1974 [1975]. L. Polgár, SJ, Bibliographic sur l’Histoire de la Compagnie de Jésus 1901–1980, 3: Les Personnes (3 vols., Rome, 1990). 1 (1990), pp. 549–53. P. Cuclos in Diccionario Histórico de la Compañía de Jesús, ed. C. E. O’Neill, SJ, and J. M. Domínguez, SJ (4 vols., Rome and Madrid, 2001)., 2 (2001), pp. 1044–6, s.v. A ‘Société des Amis du Cardinal Jean Daniélou’ was founded in Paris in 1975 to collect material on his activities and to promote the study of his writings and the continuance of his influence. It issues an annual bulletin.
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