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A
Portrait of Father Philippe
by
Frédéric Lenoir
Jean Guitton used to like to
go to Châteauneuf-de-Galaure, a small village in the department
of the Drôme, southern France, to see Marthe Robin, a mystic
who suffered the stigmata and who was foundress of the Foyers
de charité (Houses of Charity). A Dominican priest –
the author of this book – also used to go regularly to Châteauneuf-de-Galaure
to give retreats and to meet Marthe Robin. On one particular occasion
someone mentioned to Jean Guitton that Father Marie-Dominique Philippe
had just arrived. ‘Which one?’ asked Guitton, ‘The
author of The Mystery of Mary or the author of An Introduction
to the Philosophy of Aristotle?’ Guitton’s friend
replied that these authors were one and the same person. An amazed
Jean Guitton exclaimed, ‘But that’s impossible!’
This brief anecdote points to the unusual and little-known journey
of a man who has often gone against the current, pursuing an intense
philosophical research in an age when philosophy is no longer studied,
and who, in an age when the religious life has fallen upon hard times
in many ecclesiastical circles, has founded a new religious community
that has spread throughout the world. Father Philippe, both as a thinker
and as a religious, is not someone whom it is easy to classify. He
closely follows developments in modern philosophical thought and for
over forty years has maintained a fruitful dialogue with scientists,
psychoanalysts and other intellectuals whose fields of research are
quite different from his own. He has published books on mathematics,
art and medicine at the same time as preaching retreats to Carmelites
on The Song of Songs and St John’s Apocalypse. His undying loyalty
to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church has often earned him the
label ‘traditionalist’.
Many misunderstandings arise, in fact, from his attachment to St Thomas
Aquinas and to Aristotle. As a result of what seems to us a superficial
reading of Father Philippe, many view his philosophical and theological
thought as scholastic Thomism. Some are delighted at what they see
as a revival of the ‘good old Thomistic tradition’ that
has been beaten back into the corner by the contemporary philosophies
which have produced modern day atheism. Others deplore it as an out-of-date,
obscure thought that is totally ineffective in the modern world and
which seems to confuse the radically different and proper perspectives
of the philosopher and the theologian.
To our mind, a more attentive study of Father Marie-Dominique Philippe’s
thought (of which this book offers the possibility) reveals that his
personal reflections are consciously developed with the intention
of clearly distinguishing the starting point of the philosopher’s
work (i.e. experience) and the starting point of the theologian’s
work (i.e. faith) – something which scholastic Thomism has never
done. It also seems that Father Philippe’s thought is characterised
by a constant concern to return to the source, both to the source
of western philosophy – in order to take up once more and continue
the diligent search for truth begun by the ancient Greeks –
and to the source of the faith, that is, the Gospels, seeking to develop
a mystical theology based upon the writings of St John.
This collection of conversations does not claim to be in any way a
summary of Father Philippe’s thought. Rather, in a simple and
lively manner, it attempts to present the vast and profound (sometimes
unsettling) progressive unfolding of a deeply original intellectual
and spiritual search. As a man’s thought can never be separated
from his life, Father Philippe, who is usually very discreet on the
subject of himself, has agreed here to speak about his family origins,
the important choices in his life and some of the personal encounters
that have marked him, in particular those with Father Chenu and with
Marthe Robin. He also speaks about certain trials such as the great
crisis in the Dominican Order in the middle of the twentieth century,
upon which he sheds a new and poignant light.
This book is structured according to the three essential axes of Father
Philippe’s research: firstly, the philosophical research of
someone who wants to understand man and who, for the purpose of this
search, strives to eliminate all a priori and prejudices he may have
about man; secondly, the theological research of the believer who
tries to understand Holy Scripture in an intelligent manner; and finally,
the research of the friend of Christ who aspires to divine union.
The pursuit of these three wisdoms (as well as their distinction)
is at the very heart of the intellectual and spiritual work of this
warm-hearted man, who discovered the meaning of his life at the age
of eighteen, entering a monastery, and who now, at over eighty years
of age, continues to be interested in everything, to ‘seek the
truth untiringly’ (after his own expression) and to deepen his
understanding of man by unceasingly opening up new paths of research.
Such a quest surely speaks to the numerous men and women who aspire
to a true wisdom, a wisdom that will set them free. For, whatever
our points of agreement or divergence with him may be, Father Marie-Dominique
remains above all else a man who is free.
(Foreword of the book Les trois sagesses. Entretiens avec Frédéric
Lenoir, Paris: Fayard, 1994)
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