Spiritual Exegesis and the Church in the Theology of Henri de Lubac

Book excerpt: Henri De Lubac's work on medieval exegesis and his ecclesiological works are too often studied in isolation from each other. In countering this tendency, Susan Wood argues that de Lubac's work on spiritual exegesis is ultimately not about biblical exegesis and the four different meanings of the text but instead is intimately related to issues within the life of the church. Standing as the only study of de Lubac that interprets his theology through the categories of medieval exegesis, this volume provides the intellectual tools for thinking about a theology of history, a theology of symbol and sacrament, and a theology of the church's relationship to Christ and the Eucharist. Including an extensive bibliography of the primary and most important secondary sources of the theology of de Lubac, this study attributes the organic unity found in de Lubac's work to his immersion in the principles of spiritual exegesis and interprets his ecclesiology in the light of these principles.