In November 2025, the new book by archpriest Andrii Shymanovych has been published. It is entitled Catholic Movements of Religious Renewal in the 20th Century: Modernism, Neo-Thomism, Nouvelle Théologie. This study is the latest monograph in a series of books published by the Kyiv Theological Academy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The German foundation Renovabis and the Ukrainian foundation Academic Initiative provided financial support for the publication of this book.
As the title of the monograph suggests, the book analyses three key movements of religious renewal in twentieth-century Catholicism. The author pays relatively little attention to modernism, since as early as 1907 the Magisterium of the Catholic Church condemned modernism as a “synthesis of all heresies”.
Neo-Thomism was intended to protect the Catholic Church from the unjustified erosion of the Catholic dogma. In his work, Fr. Andrii Shymanovych especially focuses on such Neo-Thomists as Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange OP, Jacques Maritain, and Étienne Gilson. However, the monograph examines in greatest detail the movement of nouvelle théologie or ressourcement. Among the ‘new theologians’ studied in the book are Henri de Lubac SJ, Yves Congar OP, Jean Daniélou SJ, and Hans Urs von Balthasar.
In the afterword, Fr. Andrii describes the correlation between the movements of neo-scholasticism and nouvelle théologie as follows: “The basic difference between the two perspectives lies in the opposition between (1) fixed, rigid universalism and (2) dynamic historicism, which is sensitive to the specific context in which it exists. But to deny the objective value of either of the two theological orientations is a highly biased and one-sided approach” (p. 407).
The book will be important both for Catholics who want to better understand the theology of their Church as well as for all other Christians who seek a deeper awareness of the dynamics of the Christian tradition. This work is also of considerable value to Orthodox Christians, since there are similar tendencies within the Orthodox Church to defend tradition and to revitalise it in accordance with the modern realities in which the Church of Christ exists.
You can read the Afterword from Fr. Andrii’s monograph at this link: https://www.academic-initiative.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Shymanovych-Afterword.pdf
