Book Review

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Peter Lang

I n t e rn at ion a l ACADEMIC pU B L I SHe r s

232

O’SULLIVAN, Noel

Christ and creation: Christology as the key to interpreting the theology of creation

in the works of Henri De Lubac.

New York: Berlin; Oxford: Peter Lang, 2009.

490p. (Religions and discourse, 40)

ISBN 978-3-0391-1379-8, $103.95

This book sets out to interpret Henri de Lubac’s theology of creation

from a christological perspective. The challenge of this research has been the

absence of a systematic christology in the writings of de Lubac. Yet it is

possible to posit a Lubacian christology by sifting through the author’s work on

a myriad of subjects. The point of entry is the patristic distinction between

‘image’ and ‘likeness’, whereby ‘image’ is understood as an inamissible seal

which bestows the divine prerogatives of reason, freedom, immortality and

dominion over nature. ‘Likeness’ is a potential given at creation and realised in

the course of the economy of salvation. De Lubac describes it variously as

divinisation, divine union, the supernatural dignity of the human being, and

participation in the internal movement of the Trinity. The originality of this

book consists in the gradual emergence of the role of Christ in the process

whereby image becomes likeness. De Lubac records his intention to publish a

book on Jesus Christ, an ambition he never realised. The present book does

not just illustrate the omnipresence of Christ in the writings of de Lubac but

dares to delineate what a Lubacian christology would look like.