Wednesday, February 19, 2014

"Modernism is exhausted ..."

One of our west-coast correspondents and readers recently contacted me with the linked dissertation below by a student of Fr. Joseph Komonchak. He remarks:
Modernism is exhausted. Fr. Joseph Komonchak gave us that magnificent review of The Banished Heart. Then he gave us the translations of the original schemas of Vatican II. Now he has outdone himself with the appearance of the dissertation of one of his students. Fr. Ignazio Michael Bellafiore, S.J. teaches systematic theology at the U. of Scranton. His dissertation (online in full): "Personal Religion in the Apologetic Christology of Leonce de Grandmaison" (Catholic U. of America, 2013). Jesuit Father Grandmaison was a leading critic of modernism as it unfolded before WWI. He was from Normandy and a huge presence physically. Vide especially photo in Dominique Avon. Les Jesuites.
All this is the more remarkable as Fr. Komonchak can hardly be classified as a traditionalist (some of you may recall Fr. Z scratching his head about just where Fr. Komonchak stands in a Commonweal article last April, although he finally concluded that he wishes to hem the pope in and restrict his power.)

[Hat tip to Sir A.S.]

2 comments:

JM said...

Komonchak is a puzzle. I will report approvingly that in America (magazine) he let it be known of his less than enthusiastic opinion of Wilfrid Ward's engaging but agnostic biography of his parents. I think regardless of this theology, he might at least be a straight shooter.

Ralph Roister-Doister said...

Joseph Komonchak a late-blooming trad, huh? Is this really what you guys waste your time picking daisy petals over? Like Fr Ratzinger said about Michael Davies, "there's one born every minute!"