favourite theologian

[MarysLittleFlower]

Please share mine is Fr Garrigou-Lagrange 

[PhuturePriest]

Do not ask that which is impossible to answer.

I do not have a quaint "favorite." I rather have twelve feet of names in no particular order. 

Saint John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Saint Polycarp are a few names that come readily to mind. No list is complete without the Angelic Doctor and Saint Augustine, clearly.

[Selah]

Don't make me choose!  From the East, St. Gregory Palamas. I like his teachings on Theosis and Hesychasm (both a belief and practice held by some Byzantine Catholics). The Eastern Desert Fathers were theologians all their own. As for the West, I actually do like St. Aquinas, and have used him in debates  The Summa is actually really interesting. I know the two are worlds apart, but they both are/were great men. 

[MarysLittleFlower]

Haha I'll change it to favourite theologians then mine are Fr Garrigou Lagrange, St Thomas Aquinas, St Augustine 

[Peace]

47 minutes ago, MarysLittleFlower said:

Please share mine is Fr Garrigou-Lagrange 

Dunno. I find Peter Enns stuff to be pretty interesting.

And yes I know he is a heretic!

[MarysLittleFlower]

I don't know him... But if he's a heretic I'm not interested sorry.

I remembered I also like Archbishop Sheen. 

[Peace]

Just now, MarysLittleFlower said:

I don't know him... But if he's a heretic I'm not interested sorry.

I remembered I also like Archbishop Sheen. 

I would guess that every theologian is a heretic on some point. I think Aquinas denied the immaculate conception. But there are levels of heresy indeed.

Without mentioning anything specific, I would guess that some Protestant theology might have made its way into or influenced Catholicism theology. It is not as though those folks are totally devoid of anything to offer. Many of them are very thoughtful Christians (like C.S. Lewis or N.T. Wright) and worth reading I think. I know that Fr. Robert Barron reads both.

I think that some of Enns stuff on OT interpretation is interesting. He tackles a lot of the tough OT passages that many of the atheists love to cite. I would guess that Catholics might come down on the same side as some of his conclusions - such as God did not literally command the slaughter of the Canaanites, etc.

I like Sheen too though. I am a big fan - but mostly of the old TV shows on Youtube. Have not read much of his stuff except for "Life of Christ" though . . .

[Basilisa Marie]

Bonhoeffer. 

[Cam42]

Chesterton, Sheen, and Cantalamessa.

I also am a strict Thomist and find the work of Gihr to be fantastic with regard to the liturgy.  But, one cannot go wrong with Fortescue and O'Connell, either.

My all time favorite though, is John Henry Cardinal Newman.

[Era Might]

Iván Illich

Jaques Ellul

Interested in reading Reinhold Niebuhr.

Edited December 15, 2015 by Era Might

[bardegaulois]

This would have been a lot easier had you limited the question to a specific time period. I'll just choose contemporary in that case. Once I was very fond of Hans Urs von Balthasar and Henri de Lubac, and they led me to Joseph Ratzinger slightly before his pontificate, in whose work I found a profound synthesis of their ressourcement thought with the liturgical thinking of Guardini (as well as my favourite non-Catholic theologians, the Anglican Radical Orthodox school. Then Ratzinger became Benedict XVI and the rest is history.

Thus, my favourite contemporary theologian is future Doctor of the Church Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI.

[Julie]

I just had a Theology exam today, so there's only one theologian on my mind right now.

Good ol' St. Thomas.

He really is the universal doctor. Pretty much any question, he answers thoroughly and thoughtfully. And he's so CLEAR! He might not have the poetry of St. Augustine or St. John Damascene, (though that's what his gorgeous hymns are for!) but he does have an elegant clarity. His arguments are easy to follow/understand.

 

Okay, I'm gushing. Seriously, though- the Summa!

 

Also, I get to be blessed with his relic every day this week (on account of final exams). Super cool!

[vee]

In no particular order Aquinas, Mother Angelica, St Therese, St Teresa of Avila, and St John of the Cross.   

[CatherineM]

Anyone except Bernard Lonergan. 

[NadaTeTurbe]

For contemporary theologian... 

René Girard - not strictly a theologian, he was an anthropologist. He converted to catholicism while studying it. He died this year. And he opposed Claude Levi-Strauss that I don't like. 

Jacques Maritain. He converted to catholicism, helped to revive Thomism, and was a friend of Paul VI. I like this part of his thought : 

"Maritain was a strong defender of a natural law ethics. He viewed ethical norms as being rooted in human nature. For Maritain the natural law is known primarily, not through philosophical argument and demonstration, but rather through "Connaturality". Connatural knowledge is a kind of knowledge by acquaintance. We know the natural law through our direct acquaintance with it in our human experience. Of central importance, is Maritain's argument that natural rights are rooted in the natural law. "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Maritain

His cause for beatification, with his wife, is being planned. 

And he said : " Vae mihi si non Thomistizavero" [Woe to me if I do not Thomisticize "

And then there's Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict.