Ulrich Engel OP: New Article about M.-D. Chenu OP


[10.4.2015] "Sixty years ago, in 1954, pressure from Rome put an end to the so-called “Worker-Priest Experiment”. Today the debate which at that time took place primarily in France appears to have been settled: the relationship between the Church and the work force has developed into a “non-relationship”. In opposition to this silent oblivion, this historical and theological reflection commemorates the engagement of the French worker-priests (prêtres-ouvriers) and their intellectual leader Marie-Dominique Chenu OP (1895-1990). Chenu, who had presented pioneering impulses for a “new” theology and spirituality of the world, work and (worker-)priesthood long before the Second Vatican took place, is for this reason especially highlighted. In the following essay, I will present four fundamental categories of his theology against the backdrop of the ecclesiastical-political conflict surrounding the French worker-priest movement. The prevailing connection between historical-political and systematical-theological aspects proves Chenu’s theology to be indeed a public theology. [...]"

Bibliography: Ulrich Engel, Vital Opposition“. Marie-Dominique Chenu O.P.—Fundamental Categories of His Theology Reflected in the Conflict Surrounding the French Worker-Priest Movement, in: Angelicum 90 (2013), 961-976.

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