Dio e l’uomo in Cristo Gesù Via, Verità e Vita. La sintesi teologica di Teresa di Lisieux, Dottore della Chiesa

Abstract

Story of a Soul by saint Theresa of Lisieux is truly a work of theological synthesis, comparable to saint Thomas Aquinas’ Theological Summa. The content of the two works is the same : the mystery of God and man in Christ Jesus: Way, Truth and Life. Thérèse was declared Doctor of the Church by saint John-Paul II and named «expert in scientia amoris», the science of the mystics that – in the words of Benedict XVI – «makes all the truth of the faith reappear in love». There is a perfect complementarity between Thérèse’s scientia amoris and Saint Thomas’ scientia fidei, the intellectual mode of theology for the Church itself. With her words, which are simple, but always dense and precise, Thérèse has a unique capacity for bringing us to the heart of all the great truths of the Catholic faith and of Christian life, and this, in the most diverse cultures. The synthesis of Thérèse’s work is a stupendous Christocentrism. The Name of Jesus, continually breathed in faith, hope and charity unites all of reality : God and man, the cosmos and history. A doctor of Mercy and hope, Teresa helps us to rethink the theology of predestination.