Theology is discernment.

From the mid-1930s onwards, the Nouvelle revue théologique (New Theological Review ) positioned itself in the face of the upheavals and misfortunes that shook the international situation: the rise of totalitarianism and anti-Semitism, the expansionism of Hitler's Germany, right up to the invasion of Poland in September 1939.

In this new Cahier de la NRT, Bernard Joassart examines how the magazine's theologians engaged, often against the grain, with the conflicts of the time, based on the unpublished memoir of NRT's director, the Jesuit Jean Levie (1885-1966).

The preface is by Étienne Fouilloux.

Table of contents

1. Gaston Fessard - a prelude to Pax nostra
2. Condemnation of Nazism and Communism
3. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
4. Japan's invasion of China
5. Luigi Sturzo - Politics and moral theology
6. Racism
7. The “Catholicus” series
8. Reactions of Levie's Jesuit superiors
9. The lifting of the ban on reading L'Action française

Order this new Cahier de la NRT

“ Father Bernard Joassart has at his disposal material too often lost or inaccessible: letters from disgruntled letters from disgruntled readers. Father Levie has in fact preserved most of the critical correspondence from these crucial years. Cardinal von Faulhaber, Archbishop of Munich, and Cardinal Van Roey, Archbishop of Mechelen, were not not satisfied with the magazine's coverage of the German and Belgian German and Belgian situations. É. Fouilloux

The author

Bernard Joassart: born in 1954 in Jemappes (Belgium), is a Belgian priest and Jesuit.
He holds a doctorate in philosophy and literature and a licentiate in theology. His doctoral thesis was on Hippolyte Delehaye. He is a member of the Société des Bollandistes. He is a member of the NRT editorial board.

Extract from Étienne Fouilloux's preface

A journal that benefits from the collaboration of some of the world's leading moral theologians can hardly remain impassive in the face of these multiple infringements of the law of nations and the law of peoples. But not all theological journals have reacted with the same vigor as the Nouvelle revue théologique. The second reason for what can only be described as its commitment to the ongoing conflicts was the impetus of its director, Father Jean Levie, supported by the editorial board. Without underestimating the communist danger, particularly in Spain and Mexico, Levie is convinced that, in these crises, the immediate danger to the international order and Christian principles comes from Nazism and its emulators in Italy, Spain and Belgium, not from Stalinist communism, however harmful it may be. (...)
Father Bernard Joassart has access to material that is too often lost or inaccessible: letters from disgruntled readers. In fact, Father Levie has preserved most of the critical correspondence from those crucial years. Cardinal von Faulhaber, Archbishop of Munich, and Cardinal Van Roey, Archbishop of Malines, were unhappy with the magazine's coverage of the German and Belgian situations. Iberian Jesuits question the nationalist crimes in Spain and regret that the magazine does not follow the Spanish ecclesiastical hierarchy in its unconditional support for General Franco. An Austrian Catholic rallied to Nazism attacks Don Sturzo, and a long serial pits the Dutch anti-Semite Herman de Vries de Heekelingen against Father Charles on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Such a sample of letters shows the extent to which Catholic opinion remains divided on all these burning issues, not least the “Jewish question”.