RESSOURCEMENT: RETRIEVAL AND RENEWAL IN CATHOLIC THOUGHT is a series, edited by David L. Schindler, that offers the best in twentieth-century Catholicism: theology and philosophy that draw on the riches of the Church's two-thousand-year tradition, literature and cultural studies that give renewed form to a classic Catholic sensibility.
Jean Daniélou devoted his life and scholarship to the question of Christianity and culture. He approached this question in the light of the full Catholic tradi- tion, drawing from the rich resources of the early church fathers, whom he loved deeply. In Prayer: The Mission of the Church Daniélou considers the centrality of prayer for the Christian layperson, developing the insight that the active, mis- sionary dimension of the Christian life is in fact the "self-unfolding" of contem- plation. There is clearly a trinitarian structure here, in line with both biblical and patristic thought. The spontaneous tone of these short but direct chapters brings out the affective presence of their author and places the issues within the existen- tial context in which theology and spirituality converge.
"Anyone who knew the author, or rather narrator, of this book as well as I did will find him living again in each of these short chapters. Others will be delight- ed with the rich diversity of his ideas and the accessibility of his language.... Readers will convince themselves of the truth of what is said here, and admit that many seemingly simply worded sentences are in fact genuine pearls of wisdom."
- HANS URS VON BALTHASAR from the Foreword
"Danielou was one of the greatest of a distinguished group of mid-twentieth- century Catholic thinkers whose thought remains living and relevant.... In this book, at once unpretentious and profound, he pursues the Ignatian insight that all Christians are called to a common spirituality and this-worldly mission that is an unfolding of prayer, a continuation of the mystery of Christ, and the presence of the Trinity in us."
- GLENN W. OLSEN University of Utah
JEAN DANIELOU (1905-1974) was a French Jesuit, bishop, and cardinal who taught as a professor at the Institut Catholique in Paris. He became a key figure in the theological renewal known as the Ressourcement, and at Vatican II he was consulted in the drafting of Gaudium et Spes.
