Marie dominique chenu biography of christopher columbus

translated by Paul J. Philibert, O.P. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002, pp.149, $15.95, pb. ISBN 0-8146-5079-1.
Reviewed by John B. LOUNIBOS, Dominican College, ORANGEBURG, NY 10962

Students of philosophy at Catholic universities after Aeterni Patris, the letter of Pope Leo XIII (Aug 4, 1879) that restored "Christian Philosophy in the Spirit of St.

Thomas Aquinas," and before the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), usually thought they knew the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas after course work in his writings. Vatican initiatives in the last quarter of the 19th century to restore the teaching of Aquinas to the center of Catholic thought, were part of wider efforts to rebut modern thinking and claims by means of a return to the medieval, if gothic, synthesis of faith and reason.

Marie-Dominique Chenu, O.P. (1895-1990) grew up in the milieu stimulated by the return to original sources, the resourcement, of patristic, and medieval scholars, which included a renewe