Articles

Principles for a New Ressourcement in a Time of Crisis

Tracey Rowland

Issue 1

Volume 1

pp. 138 - 177

https://doi.org/10.65172/MrS9MVZUN5Ucmufm

Abstract

Tracey Rowland explores the "German ressourcement" movement, centered around the journal Hochland, as a vital framework for contemporary theological renewal. Addressing crises in anthropology and the nature of the human person, she outlines seven principles to counter both "bourgeois Christianity" and atheistic humanism. Rowland advocates for a Christocentric humanism that prioritizes logos over ethos, maintains the unity of theological disciplines, and engages spiritual challenges on "sacramental ground" rather than through secularized accommodation.

Citations

Roland Millare, “The Hermeneutic of Continuity and Discontinuity between Romano Guardini and Joseph Ratzinger: the Primacy of Logos,” Nova et Vetera 18, no. 2 (Spring 2020): 521–63.

Hans Urs von Balthasar, The Office of Peter and the Structure of the Church (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2007).

Pseudo-Dionysius, “Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works,” in The Classics of Western Spirituality (London: SPCK, 1987), 207.

Peter Wust, Ungewissheit und Wagnis (München: Kösel, 1962), 212.

Romano Guardini, La coscienza (Brescia: Morcelliana, 2009), 29, 32–33.

Theodor Haecker, Der Christ und die Geschichte, 170.

Pope Benedict, What Is Christianity? The Last Writings (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2023), 29.

Joseph Ratzinger, Faith and the Future (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1971), 67.

Theodor Haecker, Der Christ und die Geschichte (Leipzig: Jakob Hegner, 1935), 79.

Theodor Haecker, Journal in the Night (New York: Pantheon Books, 1950), 10.

Theodor Haecker, Was ist der Mensch? (Frankfurt am Main: Ullstein Verlag, 1959), 46–47.

John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, rev. ed. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), 379.

Yves Congar, Lay People in the Church (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1965), 100.

Charles Davis, “Theology and Praxis,” Cross Currents 2 (1973): 154–68.

Alasdair MacIntyre, “Plain Persons and Moral Philosophy,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 66, no. 1 (1992): 3–19.

Matthias Joseph Scheeben, The Mysteries of Christianity, trans. Cyril Vollert (London: Herder, 1954), 4.

Theodor Haecker, Der Christ und die Geschichte (Leipzig: Jakob Hegner, 1935), 92.

Karl Rahner, Theological Investigations, vol. 9, trans. Graham Harrison (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1972), 52.

Gottlieb Söhngen, “Die Theologie im Streit der Fakultäten,” Hochland (1951/2): 225–38, at 236.

Joseph Ratzinger, Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2006), 47.

John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. 1, sermon 24 (London: Longmans, Green, 1907), 309–23.

David L. Schindler, “Is Truth Ugly? Moralism and the Convertibility of Being and Love,” Communio: International Catholic Review 27 (Winter 2000), 702–28.

Peter Wust, Crisis in the West (London: Sheed & Ward, 1931), 64.

Joseph Ratzinger, The Yes of Jesus Christ: Spiritual Exercises in Faith, Hope, and Love (New York: Crossroad, 1991), 82.

Jacques Maritain, Art and Scholasticism (London: Sheed & Ward, 1930), 170

Theodor Haecker, Kierkegaard the Cripple (London: Harvill, 1948), 21

Pablo Blanco Sarto, “Faith, Reason (and Love) according to Joseph Ratzinger,” Anglican Theological Review, 499–509, at 503.

Joseph Ratzinger, The Nature and Mission of Theology: Approaches to Understanding Its Role in the Light of Present Controversy (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1995), 91.

Joseph Ratzinger, On Conscience (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2007), 24, 38

Matthew Levering, The Abuse of Conscience: A Century of Catholic Moral Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2021), 193.

Roland Millare, “The Primacy of Logos over Ethos: The Influence of Romano Guardini on Post-Conciliar Theology,” The Heythrop Journal 57, no. 6 (November 2016): 974–83.

Joseph Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology: Building Stones for a Fundamental Theology, 168.

Theodor Steinbüchel, Friedrich Nietzsche: Eine christliche Bessinung (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1946), 23.

James V. Schall, The Politics of Heaven and Hell: Christian Themes from Classical, Medieval and Modern Political Philosophy (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984).

Gottlieb Söhngen, “The Analogy of Faith: Unity in the Science of Faith,” trans. Kenneth Oakes, Pro Ecclesia 21, no. 2 (2012): 169–94, at 179.

Paul Cordes, address delivered to the Australian Catholic University, Sydney, on the occasion of the release of Caritas in Veritate, 2009.

William T. Cavanaugh, Theopolitical Imagination: Christian Practices of Space and Time (London: T&T Clark, 2003), 81.

Joseph Ratzinger, “Europe in the Crisis of Cultures,” Communio: International Catholic Review 3 (2005), 345–56, at 346–47.

Joseph Ratzinger, Wahrheit, Werte, Macht: Prüfsteine der pluralistischen Gesellschaft (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1993), 34. English translation by Anna Silvas.

Beyond Kant and Nietzsche: The Munich Defence of Christian Humanism (London: Bloomsbury, 2021), 67–91.

Hans Urs von Balthasar, The Theology of Karl Barth (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1992), 330.

Erich Przywara, Vier Predigten über das Abendland (Einsiedeln: Johannes, 1948), 21.

Hans Urs von Balthasar, Theological Anthropology (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1967), 174–75.

Angelo Scola, “‘Claim’ of Christ, ‘Claim’ of the World: On the Trinitarian Encyclicals of John Paul II,” Communio 18 (Fall 1991): 322–31, at 331.

Hans Urs von Balthasar, Explorations in Theology, vol. 1, The Word Made Flesh (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1989), 201.

Karl Rahner, To Identity through History: Historical and Ontological Dimensions of Man’s Fulfilment by Isabel C. Troconis (London: Bloomsbury).

Joseph Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology: Building Stones for a Fundamental Theology (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1987), 160.

Gottlieb Söhngen, Der Weg der abendländischen Theologie (München: Anton Pustet, 1959), 55.

Erich Przywara, “Um das Erbe Friedrich Nietzsches,” in Ringen der Gegenwart: Gesammelte Aufsätze (Augsburg, DE: Filser, 1929), 2:169–79.

Robert Spaemann, “Nature,” in A Robert Spaemann Reader: Philosophical Essays on Nature, God, and the Human Person, ed. and trans. D.C. Schindler and Jeanne Heffernan Schindler (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 30.

Contact us at [email protected] or (866) 928-1237

Word on Fire © 2026 - All Rights Reserved

Word on Fire Catholic Ministries is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit ministry.