GILSON—NEWMAN—BLONDEL?

The article analyzes the dispute between Étienne Gilson and Maurice Blondel. Their dispute is quite notorious and, even though all the reasons behind it are unknown, casts a shadow on the French philosophy of Christian inspiration in the last century. For both Gilson and Blondel are among the most illustrious representatives of it. The article attempts to reconcile Gilson and Blondel by referring to John Henry Newman. According to Henri de Lubac, “Blondel greatly admired Newman and, in that, Gilson joined him;” moreover, St. John Paul II, in Fides et Ratio, not only proposed the names of Newman and Gilson among the five thinkers of Western thought that he considered to be significant examples of “fruitful relationship between philosophy and the word of God” in their “courageous research,” but he also, considered their “philosophical works of great influence and lasting value.” The former Pope stated, “a philosophy which, starting with an analysis of immanence, opened the way to the transcendent,” just after devoting two paragraphs to praise the modern Thomistic revival and its fruits (§57–58). Could, then, blessed John Henry Newman be a possible tertium datum between Gilson and Blondel?