Spiritual Exegesis and the Church in the Theology of Henri de Lubac

Henri De Lubac's work on medieval exegesis and his ecclesiological works are too often studied in isolation from each other. In countering this tendency, Susan Wood argues that de Lubac's work on spiritual exegesis is ultimately not about biblical exegesis and the four different meanings of the text but instead is intimately related to issues within the life of the church. Standing as the only study of de Lubac that interprets his theology through the categories of medieval exegesis, this volume provides the intellectual tools for thinking about a theology of history, a theology of symbol and sacrament, and a theology of the church's relationship to Christ and the Eucharist. Including an extensive bibliography of the primary and most important secondary sources of the theology of de Lubac, this study attributes the organic unity found in de Lubac's work to his immersion in the principles of spiritual exegesis and interprets his ecclesiology in the light of these principles. ""I know of no comparably careful study of the unity of Henri de Lubac's seminal contribution to sacramental theology, scriptural exegesis, the theology of history, and the theology of the church. Susan Wood's limpid exposition of the dynamic unity of de Lubac's Augustinianism will enable contemporary students of that tradition to grasp its extraordinary pertinence to our own time, in which fragmentation is the salient feature of theological scholarship. . . . Wood's study of a scholar who may be thought the greatest Catholic theologian of the century is entirely topical and entirely admirable."" --Donald J. Keefe, SJ St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie ""A first-class piece of scholarship showing the inherent relationship between de Lubac's understanding of biblical exegesis and his ecclesiology. Insightful, critical, and balanced, Wood's treatment of de Lubac's work will serve as a good introduction to his thought and to his contribution to contemporary theology, and it will provide those familiar with de Lubac's work a challenging new interpretation of his theological vision."" --Patrick W. Carey Marquette University Susan K. Wood, SCL, is Professor and Chair of the Deparment of Theology at Marquette University, Milwaukie, Wisconsin.