Louis Bouyer, CO (17 February 1913 – 22 October 2004), was a

French Catholic , native_name_lang = fr , image = 060806-France-Paris-Notre Dame.jpg , imagewidth = 200px , alt = , caption = Cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris , abbreviation = , type ...

priest and former

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

minister who was received into the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in 1939. During his religious career he was an influential theological thinker, especially in the fields of history, liturgy and spirituality, and as ''

peritus ''Peritus'' (Latin for "expert") is the title given to Roman Catholic theologians attending an ecumenical council to give advice. At the Second Vatican Council, some ''periti'' (the plural form) accompanied individual bishops or groups of bisho ...

'' helped shape the vision of the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions) ...

. Along with

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and others, he was a co-founder of the international review ''

Communio ''Communio'' is a federation of theological journals, founded in 1972 by Joseph Ratzinger, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac, Walter Kasper, Marc Ouellet, Louis Bouyer, and others. ''Communio'', now published in fifteen editions (including ...

''. He was chosen by the pope to be part of a team to initiate the

International Theological Commission The International Theological Commission (ITC) is a body of the Roman Curia of the Catholic Church; it advises the magisterium of the church, particularly the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), a dicastery of the Roman Curia. Its mem ...

in 1969.

Biography

Born into a Protestant family in Paris, Louis Bouyer, after a receiving a degree from the Sorbonne, studied theology with the Protestant faculties of Paris and then Strasbourg. He was ordained a

minister in 1936 and served as vicar of the Lutheran parish of the Trinity in Paris until

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1939, the study of the

christology In Christianity, Christology (from the Ancient Greek, Greek grc, Χριστός, Khristós, label=none and grc, wiktionary:-λογία, -λογία, wiktionary:-logia, -logia, label=none), translated literally from Greek as "the study of Chr ...

and

ecclesiology In Christian theology, ecclesiology is the study of the Church, the origins of Christianity, its relationship to Jesus, its role in salvation, its polity, its discipline, its eschatology, and its leadership. In its early history, one of the ...

of St. Athanasius of Alexandria led Bouyer to the

. Received into the Catholic Church in the

Abbey of Saint-Wandrille Fontenelle Abbey or the Abbey of St. Wandrille is a Benedictine monastery in the commune of Rives-en-Seine. It was founded in 649 near Caudebec-en-Caux in Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France. First foundation It was founded by Wandregisel or S ...

(

Seine-Maritime Seine-Maritime () is a department of France in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the northern coast of France, at the mouth of the Seine, and includes the cities of Rouen and Le Havre. Until 1955 it was named Seine-Inféri ...

) in 1944, he entered the congregation of the priests of the Oratory, and remained with them the rest of his life. He was a professor at the

Catholic Institute of Paris The Institut Catholique de Paris (ICP), known in English as the Catholic University of Paris (and in Latin as ''Universitas catholica Parisiensis''), is a private university located in Paris, France. History: 1875–present The Institut Catholiq ...

until 1963 and then taught in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. In 1969 he wrote the book ''The Decomposition of Catholicism,'' which presented what he saw as important liturgical and dogmatic problems in the Church. Twice appointed by the pope to the

, he was a consultant at the

for the

liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

, the

Congregation of Sacred Rites The Sacred Congregation of Rites was a Congregation (Roman Curia), congregation of the Roman Curia, erected on 22 January 1588 by Pope Sixtus V by ''Immensa Aeterni Dei''; it had its functions reassigned by Pope Paul VI on 8 May 1969. The Congreg ...

and

Secretariat for Christian Unity The Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, previously named the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU), is a dicastery whose origins are associated with the Second Vatican Council which met intermittently from 1962 to 1965. Po ...

, recording in his memoirs a general negative impression of the council. In 1999 he received the Cardinal-Grente prize of the

French Academy French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

for all his work. He died 22 October 2004 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, a victim of many years of

Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As t ...

. He was buried in the cemetery of the Abbey of Saint-Wandrille.

Published works in English

* ''The Paschal Mystery. Meditations on the Last Three Days of Holy Week'' (1951) * ''Life and Liturgy (Liturgical Piety)'' (1955) * ''The Spirit and Forms of Protestantism'' (1956) * ''Newman: His Life and Spirituality'' (London: Burns & Oates, 1958) * ''Introduction to Spirituality'' (1961) * ''The Word, Church and Sacraments in Protestantism and Catholicism'' (1961) * ''The Seat of Wisdom: an Essay on the Place of the Virgin Mary in Christian theology'' (1962) * ''Liturgy and Architecture'' (1967) * ''The Decomposition of Catholicism'' (Chicago, 1969) * ''The Spirituality of the New Testament and the Fathers'' (History of Christian Spirituality; v. 1) (1982) * ''The Spirituality of the Middle Ages'' (History of Christian Spirituality; v. 2) (1982) * ''Cosmos: The World and the Glory of God'' (1988) * ''The Church of God: Body of Christ and Temple of the Holy Spirit'' (2011) * ''The Memoirs of Louis Bouyer: From Youth and Conversion to Vatican II, the Liturgical Reform, and After'' (Angelico Press, August 2015)

Footnotes

Bibliography

* "Le métier de théologien" - Interviews with Georges Daix,

Éditions France-Empire France-Empire is an independent French publishing house, created in 1945 by . History In 1945, from the end of the Second World War, the Éditions France-Empire began their activity by publishing works concerning the period 1939-1945 then the ...

, 1979. * "Trois liturgistes. Héritage et actualité. Louis Bouyer,

Pierre Jounel Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

Pierre-Marie Gy Pierre-Marie is a French masculine given name, and may refer to: * Pierre-Marie Carré (born 1947), French prelate of the Catholic Church * Pierre-Marie Coty (1927–2020), Ivorian Roman Catholic bishop * Pierre-Marie Delfieux (1934–2013), Fren ...

", review ''La Maison-Dieu'', No. 246, 2006, 183 p. * De Rémur, Guillaume Bruté. ''La théologie trinitaire de Louis Bouyer'', Editrice Pontificia Università Gregoriana, Rome, 2010, 378 p. * Duchesne, Jean. ''Louis Bouyer'', ed. Artège, Perpignan, 2011, 127 p. * Zordan, Davide. ''Connaissance et mystère. L'itinéraire théologique de Louis Bouyer'', Paris: Editions du Cerf, 2008, 807 p.

External links

Louis Bouyer biography on IgnatiusInsight.comLouis Bouyer and Church Architecture
*Mark Brumley

on the Catholic Education Resource Center webpage; reprinted from Mark Brumley. "Why Only Catholicism Can Make Protestantism Work: Louis Bouyer on the Reformation," Catholic Dossier 7 no. 5 (September–October 2001): 30–35. *Mark Brumley
Why Catholicism Makes Protestantism Tick: Louis Bouyer on the Reformation
on the Ignatius Insight webpage (November 2004). {{DEFAULTSORT:Bouyer, Louis 1913 births 2004 deaths Clergy from Paris 20th-century French Catholic theologians Converts to Roman Catholicism from Lutheranism Oratorians International Theological Commission