Romance and System: The Theological Synthesis of Matthias Joseph Scheeben

by Aidan Nichols

Publisher:

Emmaus Academic

, 2021

Overview

“Pope Benedict XVI, writing in 1988 as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, described Matthias Joseph Scheeben’s theology as justly praised, but rather less read. My modest hope, through this entirely straightforward study, is to encourage some more—in a phrase Scheeben would relish—ecclesially fruitful reading of him in the English-speaking world.”—From the Author’s Preface

Romance and System: The Theological Synthesis of Matthias Joseph Scheeben by Aidan Nichols, OP, is a comprehensive introduction to one of the most significant dogmatic theologians of recent centuries.

Exploring the vigor, coherence, and beauty of Scheeben’s theological vision, Nichols concludes that the great German theologian’s work combines “romance and system”: a lyrical appeal to the imagination and a virile challenge to the intellect, the inspiration of metaphor and the conceptual power of an architectonic account of the revelation carried by the Church.

Romance and System examines the major themes of Scheeben’s works and underscores their preeminence in Catholic dogmatic theology.

Key Features

• Offers a helpful model of the renewal of theology conducted in a scholastic mode
• Bases the theology of the mysteries of faith on the nuptial unity for the divine and human
• Gives insights from different topics such as The Nature of Faith, Attributes of Divine Being and Life, Trinity and more

Contents

• Introducing Scheeben
• The Nature of Faith
• The Character of Theology
• The Marriage of Nature and Grace
• The Primacy of the Mysteries
• Modes of Revelation
• Revelation in Its Transmission
• The One God
• The Attributes of Divine Being
• The Attributes of Divine Life
• The Immanent Trinity
• The Economic Trinity
• Creation and Fall
• The God-Man in His Constitutive Relationships
• The God-Man in His Activity
• The Church and the Sacraments
• Justification and Glorification
• The Mother of God

Praise for Romance and System

Matthias Joseph Scheeben may be the Catholic Church's finest dogmatic theologian of modern times. It is, at any rate, hard to think of another who so beautifully com-bines broad and deep learning, speculative ambition, con-ceptual precision, and, perhaps above all, utter humility before the fathomless mysteries of the Christian faith. Fr. Nichols's study helps redress the neglect of this great Christian thinker in the English-speaking world. May it encourage Catholic theologians to drink more deeply from their own wells—especially since they can now turn to Scheeben's Dogmatics itself in the English translation.

—Bruce Marshall Southern Methodist University

Matthias Scheeben was undoubtedly one of the greatest speculative theologians of the modern era. His analytically dense and spiritually sublime reflections on the mystery of the Catholic faith offer a helpful model of the renewal of theology conducted in a scholastic mode, with special inspiration from St. Thomas Aquinas. Here, Fr. Aidan Nichols presents us with the first major study of Scheeben's whole dogmatics ever to appear in English. His analysis is historically nuanced and theologically rich, presenting the reader with a comprehensive and pro-found introduction to the thought of this master of theology from Cologne.

—Thomas Joseph White, OP Pontifical University of St. Thomas, Rome

M. J. Scheeben was one of the greatest Catholic theologians of the modern period. A master of synthesis, Scheeben based his theology of the mysteries of faith on the nuptial unity of the divine and human, which the Incarnation made possible and knowable. In his treatment of this marriage of faith and reason, Scheeben integrates Scripture and Tradition by drawing extensively from eastern and western fathers, as well as the medieval scholastics. At once dogmatic and mystical, Scheeben's theology is a model of Thomistic ressourcement, one that has been studied and praised by a wide array of Catholic thinkers, ranging from Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange to Hans Urs von Balthasar. Not to be missed, this book serves to introduce one of the greatest Catholic thinkers of the last few centuries to a new generation of pastors, professors, and students.

—Scott W. Hahn Franciscan University of Steubenville

Product Details

• Title: Romance and System: The Theological Synthesis of Matthias Joseph Scheeben
• Author: Aidan Nichols
• Publisher: Emmaus Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2021
• Logos Release Date: 2022
• Pages: 537
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Scheeben, Matthias Joseph, 1835-1888; Theology, Doctrinal
• ISBNs: 9781645850588, 9781645850595, 9781645850601, 1645850587, 1645850595, 1645850609
• Resource ID: LLS:RMNCSYSTMJSCHBN
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:47:03Z

About Aidan Nichols

John Christopher “Aidan” Nichols OP (born 17 September 1948) is an academic and Catholic priest. Nichols served as the first John Paul II Memorial Visiting Lecturer at Oxford University for 2006 to 2008, the first lectureship of Catholic theology at that university since the Reformation. He is a member of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) and was formerly the Prior of St Michael and All Angels in Cambridge.