Soldiers of God in a Secular World

Witnesses to the Living God: Three Paradigms for Approaching the Politics of Nouvelle Théologie*

“…Distinct from L'Action catholique, which tended to view political institutions themselves as the focal point of mission, these Dominicans supported clerical witness at the core métier of working-class humanity. 81 Claiming to transcend political boundaries and advocate for the dignity of persons as the precondition for the spread of the gospel, Chenu could present the worker-priest movement as inspired not from Communist premises, but from the renewed vigor of Christian mission that was an uncontestable desideratum in the French Church. Following the publication of Godin and Daniel's alarming France, pays de mission (1943), it was clear that entire sections of the proletariat were unevangelized.…”