Piet Schoonenberg

Piet Schoonenberg, SJ (1 October 1911 – 21 September 1999) was a Dutch Jesuit priest, theologian and professor of theology. Closely associated with the nouvelle théologie movement, he is best known for his major contributions to the Dutch Catechism of 1966.

Biography

Born in Amsterdam on 1 October 1911, Schoonenberg was 19 years old when, on 7 September 1930, he entered the Jesuit novitiate of Mariëndaal in Velp, Netherlands. He went on to study theology and philosophy in Nijmegen (at the Berchmanianum), in Maastricht, and in Rome (at the Pontifical Biblical Institute). He was ordained as a priest on 15 August 1939.

Schoonenberg obtained a doctorate in theology in 1948, with a dissertation on "Theology as an Articulation of Faith" (Theologie als geloofsverkondiging), He is particularly noted for his contributions to a new Catholic theology of original sin, Christology, and Trinitarian dogma. Christology: An article in 1966 (published with Edward Schillebeeckx), taken up and developed in Schoonenberg's book Hij is een God van mensen, aroused controversy. Reacting against the excessive deification of Jesus, Schoonenberg developed a Christology "from below", taking the humanity of Christ as his starting point. Strongly criticized, he later qualified his Trinitarian conception. His proposal nonetheless contributed to new theological debates on the relationship between the so-called "economic Trinity" and "immanent Trinity".

Works Works available in English translation include: God's World in the Making, Duquesne University Press, 1964 Man and Sin: A Theological View, Sheed and Ward, 1965 (translation of De macht der zonde, 1962) Covenant and Creation, Sheed and Ward, 1968 (translation of Het geloof van ons doopsel, 1955–58) The Christ: A Study of the God-Man Relationship in the Whole of Creation and in Jesus Christ, Herder and Herder, 1971 (translation of Hij is een God van mensen, 1966)

Other Dutch-language works include: "Theology als geloofsvertolking" ["Theology as an Articulation of Faith"], 1948 dissertation De geest, het woord en de zoon [The Spirit, the Word and the Son], 1991 De Christus "van boven" en de christologie "van beneden" [The Christ "From Above" and the Christology "From Below"], 1992