Theologian · Contemporary
Louis Bouyer
1913–2004 · Ressourcement; liturgical and spiritual theology
Lutheran pastor received into the Church in 1939; Oratorian; peritus at Vatican II and member of the Consilium for the liturgical reform; co-founder of Communio.
A former Lutheran pastor whose “The Spirit and Forms of Protestantism” argued that the Reformation's positive principles are fulfilled only in the Catholic Church, whose “Eucharist” traced the anaphora from the Jewish berakah, and whose “Introduction to the Spiritual Life” and history of Christian spirituality are standard works. He helped compose Eucharistic Prayer II and then, in “The Decomposition of Catholicism” (1968) and his Memoirs, bitterly criticized how the reform was carried out.
Why he matters: One of the great converts and liturgical scholars of the century, whose insider's critique of the post-conciliar liturgy carries unique weight; his Marian and Eucharistic theology is read across the traditions.
School of Thomism · Sapiential and spiritual Thomism
Pieper, Chenu, Pinckaers and Bouyer: Thomas as a spiritual master and a theologian of the Gospel, whose Summa is built on the beatitudes and the gifts of the Spirit, whose ethics is a morality of happiness and virtue, and who ended by calling all he had written straw. The recovery of Thomas's own spirituality against the manuals.
Others in this strand: Josef Pieper, Marie-Dominique Chenu, OP, Servais Pinckaers, OP, Dante Alighieri, St. Catherine of Siena
Reading
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The Spirit and Forms of ProtestantismLouis Bouyer · Why a Lutheran pastor became a Catholic.
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Eucharist: Theology and Spirituality of the Eucharistic PrayerLouis Bouyer · The anaphora from the synagogue to the Roman Canon.
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The Memoirs of Louis BouyerLouis Bouyer · Candid recollections of the Council and the reform.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.