Over his lifetime, de Lubac was a prolific author. Not all of his works have been translated into English, evidently because professional theologians are expected to know French. Because the interpretation of the two accounts of creation in Genesis and the interpretation of the prologue of the Gospel According to John are important in the Christian tradition of thought, I want to single out here de Lubac's massively researched four-volume study titled Medieval Exegesis: The Four Senses of Scripture, translated by Mark Sebanc (Vol. 1) and E. M. Macierowski (Vols. 2 and 3; Vol. 4 in progress) (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1998, 2000, and 2009; Vol. 4, forthcoming). The four volumes were originally published in French in 1959 (Vols. 1 and 2), 1961, and 1964 -- roughly the same time period when de Lubac was publishing the books about Teilhard's thought.
The four senses of scripture that emerged historically in Christian patristic and medieval writers are known as (1) the literal interpretation, (2) the allegorical sense, (3) the moral sense, and (4) the anagogical sense.
In 1966, the prolific de Lubac himself also published an abridged edition of his four-volume study as the book Scripture in Tradition, translated by Luke O'Neill (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2000). (Your guess is as good as mine as to why de Lubac's books about scripture were not published in English in the 1960s.)
During the 1960s, de Lubac also served as an expert theologian at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) of the Roman Catholic Church.
RUDOLF VODERHOLZER'S SHORT BOOK ABOUT HENRI DE LUBAC
Now, the German-born-and-educated Roman Catholic priest and theologian Rudolf Voderholzer's 222-page book Meet Henri de Lubac: His Life and Work (Ignatius Press, 2008) is accessible. It is a translation of Voderholzer's 1999 175-page book in German, which in turn is based on his 1998 564-page book in German about de Lubac, whose theological views contributed to the Second Vatican Council. (Voderholzer was made bishop of the diocese of Regensburg in Germany in 2012.)
Vatican II was a watershed moment for the Roman Catholic Church. Basically, the church made its peace with other religious traditions, most notably with the Jewish religious tradition. The key documents approved at Vatican II have been gathered together in the book Vatican II: The Essential Texts, edited by Norman Tanner, S.J., with prefatory material by Edward P. Hahnenberg (New York: Image, 2012). Your guess is as good as mine as to how many practicing Catholics ever read the key documents of Vatican II.
On a more mundane level, Vatican II ushered in liturgical reform, including switching from Latin to the vernacular languages. In addition, Vatican II abolished the custom of abstaining from meat on Fridays. No doubt all practicing Catholics felt the impact of the liturgical reforms and the abolition of the custom of abstaining from meat on Fridays.
However, following Vatican II, the church experienced a sharp drop in the number of ordained priests and an even sharper decline in the number of women in religious orders. But the bishops and their theologians at Vatican II did not expect those declines.
Now, in the first part of Voderholzer's short book (pages 19-103), which includes (pages 11-13) a chronology of de Lubac's life, Voderholzer sketches de Lubac's life and work.
In the second part of Voderholzer's book (pages 107-217), he discusses certain themes in de Lubac's theological studies over the years.
Voderholzer's book contains numerous footnotes. But we may wonder if the footnotes have been added by the translator, Michael J. Miller, or possibly by the American Jesuit editor of Ignatius Press, Joseph Fessio, who supplied the foreword (pages 7-9). In his foreword, Fr. Fessio reports that he knew Fr. de Lubac. Ignatius Press has published translations of a number of de Lubac's works. Ignatius Press has also published Hans Urs von Balthasar's short book The Theology of Henri de Lubac: An Overview, translated by Joseph Fessio, S.J., Michael M. Waldstein, and Susan Clements (1991).
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