Adolphe Tanquerey (1 May 1854 – 21 February 1932) was a French Catholic priest of the Society of Saint-Sulpice, theologian, canon lawyer, and spiritual writer. He was one of the most influential authors of Catholic spiritual theology in the early twentieth century, especially through his Précis de théologie ascétique et mystique, a widely used manual of ascetical theology and mystical theology.
Biography
Tanquerey began his studies at the collège of Saint-Lô and continued them from 1873 at the major seminary of Coutances. In 1875 he entered the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. After two years of study in Rome, he obtained a doctorate in theology in 1878 from the Collegium Divi Thomae (now the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum).[1] Ordained to the priesthood in the same year, he became a member of the Society of Saint-Sulpice.
Tanquerey subsequently taught dogmatic theology and held various academic and administrative posts. From 1887 to 1902 he taught moral theology at St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore, United States. He briefly served as vice-rector there in 1903 before being recalled to France.[2]
During his years in Baltimore, Tanquerey composed the Synopsis theologiae dogmaticae and the Synopsis theologiae moralis et pastoralis, theological manuals that became widely used in Catholic seminaries during the first half of the twentieth century. In 1907 he was appointed vice-rector of the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Paris.
He later became superior of the “Solitude” at Issy-les-Moulineaux, the formation centre of the Society of Saint-Sulpice. During a period marked by anti-clerical legislation and tensions between the French state and Catholic institutions, Tanquerey devoted himself increasingly to theological and spiritual writing. It was at Issy that he composed his best-known work, the Précis de théologie ascétique et mystique, first published in 1924 and subsequently reissued many times.
Translated into several languages, the Précis achieved wide circulation as a systematic synthesis of ascetical and mystical theology. The work surveyed schools of Christian asceticism from the Church Fathers to Alphonsus Liguori, while placing particular emphasis on the French school of spirituality. Because of its clarity, comprehensiveness, and doctrinal orthodoxy, it became one of the most widely used manuals of spiritual theology in Catholic seminaries and was recommended by numerous spiritual authors, religious orders, and congregations.
In 1927 Tanquerey retired to Aix-en-Provence, where he continued priestly ministry while revising theological manuals and composing shorter works on the spiritual life until his death in 1932.
Précis de théologie ascétique et mystique
Tanquerey's best-known work, the Précis de théologie ascétique et mystique, was intended less as a devotional anthology than as a systematic manual of ascetical and mystical theology. In the preface to the English edition, Tanquerey describes the book as an outline for deeper study and stated that dogma was the foundation of ascetical theology. He presented Christian perfection as the practical consequence of Catholic doctrine, especially the doctrine of the Incarnation.[3]
The work is organized around the doctrinal principles of the spiritual life, the general means of Christian perfection, and the traditional distinction between the purgative way, the illuminative way, and the unitive way. Its subjects include grace, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, incorporation into Christ, the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in sanctification, prayer, spiritual direction, the virtues, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the prayer of simplicity, infused contemplation, the prayer of quiet, mystical union, quietism, extraordinary mystical phenomena, and disputed questions concerning contemplation.[4]
Although Tanquerey shows a particular preference for the seventeenth-century French School of spirituality, he presents it within a wider synthesis of Catholic spiritual traditions. He wrote that the French School was based especially on the writings of St Paul and St John and was in accord with the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas, while also stating that he drew from other schools and sought to emphasize their common teaching rather than their differences.[3]
The English translation, The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology, was prepared by Herman Branderis, S.S., and published in 1930 by Desclée & Co. in Tournai and by St Mary's Seminary in Baltimore.[5] In his foreword to the English edition, Michael J. Curley, Archbishop of Baltimore, describes Tanquerey as a former teacher of many American priests at St Mary's Seminary and characterized his theological manuals as clear, practical, and widely used among clergy and in seminaries. Curley also presents the Précis as an important contribution because, in his judgment, ascetical theology had relatively few complete and methodical textbooks compared with dogmatic and moral theology.[6]
Theology and influence
Tanquerey was among the principal representatives of the manualist tradition of pre-Vatican II Catholic theology. His writings combined Thomistic scholastic theology, Sulpician priestly formation, and the traditions of Catholic spirituality into a systematic pedagogical framework intended primarily for seminarians and clergy.
His Précis de théologie ascétique et mystique became especially influential in the formation of priests and religious during the early and mid-twentieth century. The work contributed to the codification of Catholic ascetical and mystical theology into a distinct theological discipline and remained a standard reference work in seminaries for decades.
Précis de théologie ascétique et mystique, Paris, Desclée et Cie, 1924
English translation by Herman Branderis, S.S.: The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology, Tournai: Desclée & Co.; Baltimore: St Mary's Seminary, 1930
Further reading
Carey, Patrick W.; Lienhard, Joseph T. Biographical Dictionary of Christian Theologians. Greenwood Press, 2000.
Pardington, G. Palmer. Two Paradigms in Spirituality: Alfred Tanquerey and Norman Pittenger. St. Mark's Press, 1988.
12Tanquerey, Adolphe (1930). The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology. Translated by Branderis, Herman. Tournai: Desclée & Co. pp.vii–viii.
↑Tanquerey, Adolphe (1930). The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology. Translated by Branderis, Herman. Tournai: Desclée & Co. pp.ix–xx.
↑Tanquerey, Adolphe (1930). The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology. Translated by Branderis, Herman. Tournai: Desclée & Co. title page.
↑Curley, Michael J. (1930). "Foreword". In Tanquerey, Adolphe (ed.). The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology. Translated by Branderis, Herman. Tournai: Desclée & Co. pp.v–vi.
