Abstract

M.-D. Chenu was a great medieval historian and a theologian focused on contemporary pastoral concerns. His writings drew upon a dialectic between the absolute authority of the word of God and human needs arising from transformations in society (the 'signs of the times'). His life demonstrated the conflict between the essentialist Neo-Thomism mandated by the Roman Curia and 'ressourcement' theology (a liberating expansion of theological concerns drawn from Scripture and early Christian sources). Censored by the Church in 1942 for his daring exploration of new pathways in theology, Chenu much later had significant influence as a theologian at Vatican II. He proposed to construct a 'new Christendom' out of the interplay of the primacy of the word of God and attentive concern for the signs of the times.