Daniélou, Jean

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DANIÉLOU, JEAN

Jesuit theologian, patristics scholar, spiritual writer, bishop, and cardinal; b. May 14, 1905, Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris; d. May 20, 1974, Paris. His father, Charles Daniélou, was a deputy and minister during the Third Republic; his mother, Madeleine Clamorgan, was a woman of great spiritual and intellectual caliber. Daniélou obtained his degree in classical letters from the Sorbonne and passed the competitive teaching examination in the section of classical philology (agrégation de grammaire ) in 1927. He was then introduced to political life by his father, and at the same time briefly engaged in the brilliant Parisian life of that era, translating into Latin Jean Cocteau's Oedipus Rex. On Nov. 20, 1929, answering a call he had felt since childhood, he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus (see jesuits) at Laval. After making his profession of first vows on Nov. 21, 1931, he took his course in philosophy at Jersey (1931–34). He served as professor of rhetoric at the Collège St. Joseph in Poitiers (1934–36), then took his theological studies at the theologate of Lyon-Fourvière (1936–39). At Fourvière, where the Fathers of the Church were held in great esteem, and where plans were maturing for the collection Sources Chrétiennes, his elders, Victor Fontoynont (1880–1958) and Henri de lubac, introduced Daniélou, along with his fellow scholastic Hans Urs von baltha sar, to patristic studies (see patristic theology). He was ordained to the priesthood on Aug. 24, 1938. He was mobilized into military service in 1939 and performed his "Third Year" (the Jesuit tertianship) from 1940 to 1941. He pronounced his solemn vows in Paris, Feb. 2, 1946. The personal notes he took during this long formative period, published posthumously as Carnets spirituels (1993), witness the seriousness of his spiritual training.

In 1941 Fr. Daniélou was assigned to Paris, where he spent the rest of his life. His background made him a fitting apostle to intellectuals, who accepted him as one of their own. In 1942 he published Le Signe du Temple ou de la Présence de Dieu, which contained the whole of his thought in embryonic form. Characteristic of the personality of its author, it shows a contemplative attitude, a taste for symbolic theology, a use of the exegetical methods of the Fathers, and a care to impart in a simple way to a vast public the riches of his spiritual life, scholarly work, and highly cultivated mind. His doctoral dissertation dealt with the spiritual doctrine of St. gregory of nyssa. He defended it successfully in 1943 at the Institut Catholique in Paris, and in 1944 at the Sorbonne. For the secondary thesis at the Sorbonne he translated Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Moses, which formed the first volume of Sources Chrétiennes. The rapid development as well as the high scholarly quality of this collection owes much to the personal initiative of Daniélou, who was its codirector along with de Lubac. In 1943 he was given the status of writer (scriptor) for the Jesuit review Études and succeeded Jules lebreton (1873–1956) as professor of the history of Christian origins in the faculty of theology of the Institut Catholique in Paris. He served as dean of this faculty from 1961 until 1969.

Daniélou's substantial professional achievement opened several new areas in the academic and broader Christian world. Parallel to Walther Volker and Balthasar, he was the chief instrument of a Gregory of Nyssa renaissance, dedicating numerous articles to the subject. The most important ones are collected in L'être et le temps chez Grégoire de Nysse (1970). He prepared an anthology of Gregory's mystical texts (Eng. trans. H. Musurillo, From Glory to Glory, 1961). As an intellectual sensitive to the problems raised by secular culture for the Christian, he applied himself to the study of how Gregory reworked and Christianized the philosophical ideas of his day.

With Lubac, Daniélou was the principal artisan of a rediscovery of patristic exegesis, which, like the liturgy to which it is closely bound, explores the symbolic dimension of Scripture in order to draw therefrom an understanding of the Christian revelation. In particular he illuminated the notion of typology, tying history and symbolism together in a specifically Christian way. Salvation history is marked by such interventions of God that the events of the Old Testament announce those of the New. They, in turn, are spread out across the ages of the Church in the sacramental and mystical life of the Christian people in anticipation of full eschatological realization. Here Daniélou's pertinent works are Sacramentum futuri/Étude sur les origines de la typologie biblique (1950); Bible et liturgie; La théologie biblique des sacrements et des fêtes d'après les Pères de l'Église (1951), which resulted from courses given at the University of Notre Dame in 1950; Les symboles chrétiens primitifs (1961); and Études d'exégèse judéo-chrétienne: Les Testimonia (1966).

In his Histoire des doctrines chrétiennes avant Nicée (3 vols.: Théologie du judéo–christianisme [1958], Message évangélique et culture hellénistique aux IIe et IIIe siècles [1961], and Les origines du christianisme latin [1978]), Daniélou sketched a history of Christian culture, showing how it tested, purified, or adopted the surrounding cultures. He became one of the most outstanding specialists of a rediscovered "Judaeo–Christianity." With the same care for cultural roots, he dedicated a monograph to each of the two Alexandrians, Origène (1948) and Philon d'Alexandrie (1958), as well as the first part of the first volume of the Nouvelle histoire de l'Église: Des origines à Grégoire le grand (1963). Daniélou exerted a notable influence in the scientific life of his time by producing yearly from 1946 his "Bulletin d'histoire des origines chrétiennes" in the Jesuit review Recherches de Science Religieuse.

Professionally, Daniélou was a historian of the early Church. However, by family heritage, the Jesuit tradition, and his own temperament, he was intellectually alive to every contemporary current of thought and open to every kind of dialogue. Thus he was, along with Marcel Moré (1887–1969) and the Islamic scholar Louis Massignon (1883–1962), the soul of the short-lived review Dieu Vivant/Perspectives religieuses et philosophiques (1945–55). Dieu Vivant had as its fundamental concern to recall to a secularizing world the transcendence of God and the ultimate eschatological effect which that transcendence imposes on human destiny.

Daniélou cofounded the Cercle Saint–Jean Baptiste, a group of young people dedicated to the missionary vocation, and served as its chaplain. He proposed that Christianity in non-Christian cultures should be formed not of individuals torn from their own culture and uprooted from their natural environment, but of Christians who were part and parcel of their actual culture. He tried to develop a theological vision flexible enough to embrace these principles, but especially to draw out all the implications related to Christian spirituality. The essential teaching which he gave to the Cercle Saint Jean–Baptiste is contained in: Le mystère du salut des nations (1945); Le mystère de l'Avent (1948); L'essai sur le mystère de l'histoire (1953); Les saints païens de l'Ancien Testament (1956); Jean-Baptiste témoin de l'Agneau (1964); and L'Église des apôtres (1970). Two retreats given to the Cercle have also been published: La Trinité et le mystère de l'existence (1968) and Contemplation, croissance de l'Église (1977). They show us the true stature of Daniélou as a spiritual theologian. Father Daniélou exerted a great and lasting influence as chaplain upon the Catholic students at the Sorbonne, and especially beginning in 1941 upon the young women of the École Normale Supérieure (Sèvres). Out of this apostolate came Dieu et nous (1956) and Approches du Christ (1960).

In 1962, Daniélou was nominated as a peritus to the Second Vatican Council (see vatican council ii) by Pope john xxiii. The preparation of the first part of the constitution Gaudium et spes owes much to him. He was consecrated bishop in Paris on April 21, 1969, and created cardinal deacon by Pope paul vi during the consistory of April 28. Increasingly, he spoke out on issues of the day and warned against a reductionist reading of the council. This struggle alienated him from the most influential part of the Catholic intelligentsia and clergy. His burning zeal expressed itself through his talent as a polemicist. He who in the past was an "avant-gardist" was now rebuked for having gone over to the "integralist" or reactionary side. Concerning this struggle see: L'oraison, problème politique (1965); L'avenir de la religion (1968); Christianisme de masse ou d'é1ite? (1968); Tests (1968); La foi de toujours et l'homme d'aujourd'hui (1969); Nouveaux tests (1970); La culture trahie par les siens (1972); and Pourquoi l'Église (1972).

Bibliography: A complete bibliography is available in Fr. Frei, Médiation unique et transfiguration universelle: Thèmes christologiques et leurs perspectives missionnaires dans la pensée de J. Daniélou (Bern and Frankfurt 1984). For patristic writings see Epektasis: Mélanges offerts au cardinal Jean Daniélou (Paris 1972). For works on Judaeo-Christianity see Judéo-christianisne. Recherches historiques offertes au cardinal Daniélou, special issue of Recherches de Science Religieuse 60 (1972). A bio-bibliography by m. sales is in m.–j. rondeau, ed., Jean Daniélou 1905–1974 (Paris 1975). j. daniÉlou, Et qui est mon prochain?/Mémoires (Paris 1974). p. lebeau, Jean Daniélou (Paris 1967). The collection Jean Daniélou, 1905–1974 gathers memoirs about the man himself together with introductions to the principal aspects of his activity and thought. Works in English: The Salvation of the Nations, tr. a. bouchard (London 1949); Advent, tr. r. sheed (London 1950); Origen, tr. w. mitchell (New York 1955); Bible and Liturgy (Notre Dame, Ind. 1956); The Angels and Their Mission according to the Fathers of the Church, tr. d. helmann (Westminster, Md.1957); God and Us, tr. w. roberts (London 1957); Holy Pagans of the Old Testament, tr. f. faber (London 1957); The Lord of History, tr. n. abercrombie (Chicago 1958); The Dead Sea Scrolls and Primitive Christianity, tr. s. attanasio (Baltimore 1958); The Presence of God, tr. w. roberts, (Baltimore 1960); From Shadows to Reality: Studies in the Biblical Typology of the Fathers, tr. w. hibberd (Westminister, Md. 1960); The Christian Today, tr. k. sullivan (New York 1960); Christ and Us, tr. w. roberts (New York 1961); From Glory to Glory: Texts from Gregory of Nyssa's Mystical Writings, introd. j. daniÉlou, tr. h. musurillo (New York 1961); The Scandal of the Truth, tr. w. j. kerrigan (Baltimore 1962); Primitive Christian Symbols, tr. d. attwater (London and Baltimore 1964); History of Early Christian Doctrines, tr. j. a. baker: v. 1, Theology of Jewish Christianity (London and Chicago 1964); v. 2, The Gospel Message and Hellenistic Culture (London 1973); v. 3, Origins of Latin Christianity (London and Philadelphia 1977); In the Beginning, tr. j. l. randolf (Baltimore 1965); The Work of John the Baptist, tr. j. a. horn (Baltimore 1966); Prayer as a Political Problem, tr. j. r. kirwan (New York 1967); The Infancy Narratives, tr. r. sheed (New York 1968); Myth and Mystery, tr. p. j. hepburne–scott (New York 1968); Dialogue with Israel, tr. j. m. roth (Baltimore 1968); God's Life in Us (Denville, N.J. 1969); The Faith Eternal and the Man of Today, tr. p. j. oligny (Chicago 1970); "The Crisis in Intelligence," in The Media of Communication: Art and Morals, intro. and tr. m. dominic (Slough 1970); Why the Church? tr. m. f. de lange (Chicago 1975); Prayer: The Mission of the Church, tr. d. schindler (Grand Rapids, Mich. 1996). j. daniÉlou, j. bosc, and j. guitton, The Catholic–Protestant Dialogue, tr. r. j. olsen (Baltimore 1960). j. daniÉlou and h.–i. marrou, The Christian Centuries, vol. 1, The First Six Hundred Years, tr. v. cronin (New York 1964); j. daniÉlou and a. chouraqui, The Jews: Views and Counterviews, a Dialogue (Westminster, Md. 1967).