Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Note on the text
- Introduction I: The Modernist crisis
- Introduction II: The Modernists and the anti-Modernists
- PART I THE LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY SETTING OF MODERNISM AND ANTI-MODERNISM
- PART II MAURICE BLONDEL AND ALFRED LOISY IN FRANCE
- 4 Seeking transcendence in the modern world
- 5 Blondel's Action and the problem of the University
- 6 The politics of Loisy's Modernist theology
- 7 Innovation and biblical interpretation
- PART III FRIEDRICH VON HÜGEL AND MAUDE PETRE IN ENGLAND
- PART IV SOCIAL MODERNISM AND ANTI-MODERNISM IN FRANCE
- Conclusion
- Index
4 - Seeking transcendence in the modern world
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Note on the text
- Introduction I: The Modernist crisis
- Introduction II: The Modernists and the anti-Modernists
- PART I THE LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY SETTING OF MODERNISM AND ANTI-MODERNISM
- PART II MAURICE BLONDEL AND ALFRED LOISY IN FRANCE
- 4 Seeking transcendence in the modern world
- 5 Blondel's Action and the problem of the University
- 6 The politics of Loisy's Modernist theology
- 7 Innovation and biblical interpretation
- PART III FRIEDRICH VON HÜGEL AND MAUDE PETRE IN ENGLAND
- PART IV SOCIAL MODERNISM AND ANTI-MODERNISM IN FRANCE
- Conclusion
- Index
Summary
In France, and to a lesser degree in Germany and Italy, philosopher Maurice Blondel (1861–1949) is considered a major figure in the revitalization within Roman Catholicism at the beginning of this century. An intellectual deeply committed to his faith, Blondel was convinced that contemporary experience demanded a rethinking of the problem of God. He found the prevailing patterns of rationalist philosophy indifferent to ultimate human destiny. He also regarded the static understanding which characterized the dominant Catholic theology of his day to be less well suited for expressing God's presence to human destiny than the historical character of life and thought, brought out by modern philosophy, psychology, and intellectual experience. Blondel's approach to transcendence in the modern world through his monumental study of action marked a significant shift in Catholic responses to modernity.
His ideas on the openness of the human person to a supernatural destiny, many of which bore fruit in the Second Vatican Council, are no longer considered radical. In fact his influence within the Catholic world has been quietly unobtrusive. Yet as it engages the tension between philosophical reason and Catholic faith, Blondel's thought retains a certain boldness. This essay explores how the multiple contexts within which Blondel labored shed light on his contribution to modernity. They perhaps also illumine tensions among late twentieth-century Catholic Christians, as the church still struggles with the questions he raised.
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- Catholicism Contending with ModernityRoman Catholic Modernism and Anti-Modernism in Historical Context, pp. 115 - 141Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000