Clare MCGRATH-MERKLE, Berulle’s Spiritual Theology of Priesthood: A Study in Speculative Mysticism and Applied Metaphysics. Munster: Aschendorff Verlag, 2018. Pp. 409. $77.00 pb. ISBN 0-385-49693-1. Reviewed by Anthony J. POGORELC, St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX 78228.

Pierre Cardinal Berulle lived from 1575 to 1629. He was statesman, theologian and founderof the French Oratory, the locus for applying his spirituality centered on perfect conformity to Christ.  His was a time of crisis.  Like the Protestant Reformers he saw defects in the way priesthood was lived out.  Unlike them, he did not advocate replacing the structure but raising it up.  His high theology was meant to inspire highly faithful and ethical living; volunteerism and ethicism were key aspects of his spirituality.   He wanted to renew the Church through the renewal of the clergy.

This book presents understudied aspects of Berulle’s theology.  It examines Berulle in his historical context: the Counter Reformation, as well as major philosophical and theological influences on his theology of the priesthood.  It is a scholarly work, well written though dense.  It contains comprehensive reviews by scholars who have studied Berulle. The author surveys vast amounts of literature on Berulle’s spiritual theology of priesthood. The chapter introductions and conclusions are particularly helpful in assisting especially non-specialists to understand his work. However, a glossary of the terminology of the French School would be useful. 

The author presents Berulle’s spiritual theology of priesthood as a complex super system expressing his affective and Platonic theology in Thomistic terms while seeking to integrate the writings of other theologians, especially Pseudo Dionysius and the Church Fathers.  Berulle took great liberties in assembling ideals from various philosophical currents to support his spiritual theology.  Through his writings and in his practice at the Oratory, he sought to create a stable sacerdotal identity. The Oratorians were intermediate between secular and religious priests. Berulle believed life in community was essential to the pursuit of perfection. He stressed the importance of interior disposition over actions.  To avoid charges of Pelagianism, he insisted one could only be disposed to holiness through self-emptying.

This study illustrates how the expansion of the role of priest as public person and representative of Christ found its zenith in Berulle’s spiritual theology. He emphasized Pauline and Johanine writings and in contrast to Ignatius of Loyola, who emphasized contemplation of Jesus’ actions, he focused on realizing the states and  the interior dispositions of Jesus which permanently imprint one’s being.

Though he stood in opposition to the leaders of the Reformation, he responded to rather than reacted against their critiques of Catholic theology in general and that of the priesthood in particular. For Berulle the state of priesthood requires two things: great perfection and a special bond with Jesus Christ. Berulle affirmed two types of priesthood: the royal priesthood of the baptized and the sacramental priesthood of the ordained.  He practically affirmed the relationship between the spiritualties of the ordained and laity through his work with both Oratorian priests and Carmelite nuns. 

A central concern in Counter-Reformation France had to do with how to restore a society and church devastated by war.  Berulle’s response was a spirituality based on the Mystical Body.  He had more affinity with Calvin who wanted to reform society than with Luther who concentrated on reforming the Church, as we read of “Berulle’s Political Theology.” For Calvin true religion consisted of confidence in and fear of God without “ostentatious ceremonies.” Christ is the one true worshipper.  Berulle responded to the reformers by emphasizing “the virtue of religion” and the Eucharist as worship to the Father in union with the perfect adorer, Christ.  This was his crucial response to the reformers rejection of the Mass.  Both Calvin and Berulle adopted negative anthropologies that required an economic Trinity united at the level of person.

Berulle’s critics suggest he adopted an erroneous systematic theology.   He associated the Trinitarian persons too closely with the person of the priest.  His piety demanded the destruction of one’s own person, which led to depersonalization.  Balthasar asks if his elevated theology of priesthood allowed a priest to be in true relationship with Christ and if such a priest could relate to the vulnerability of others if his ego was closed to the vulnerability of his own being.  Schillebeeckx was concerned that this view of priesthood anchored the priesthood in the divinity of Jesus in such a way that it made it cultic.

Resher calls Berulle’s theology an apory: a group of individually plausible, but collectively incompatible theses.  Berulle took a number of plausible but incompatible theses and assembled them into an untenable spiritual theology of priesthood.  It is a cognitive over-commitment to inconsistencies; it salvages elements that should be abandoned. When brought to light certain notions they do not stand the test of accepted doctrine or tradition.

In the conclusion, the author summarized Berulle’s proposal to renew the priesthood as a “technology of the self:” a system of spiritual practices meant to create a more holy and educated priest.  However, such a turn toward the self and the subjective could create a sacerdotal identity that is both kenotic and inflated. 
The author inquires: has Berulle’s exalted theology contributed to the problems of clericalism that are expressed in malfeasance and its cover-up today?