Books by Fr. Louis Bouyer

Recently, Editions du Cerf has been republishing books by Fr. Bouyer, including Dom Lambert Beauduin: Un homme d'Église, Newman: Sa vie – Sa spiritualité, Architecture et Liturgie, La Bible et l'Évangile Le sens de l'Écriture : du Dieu qui parle au Dieu fait homme, Le Mystère pascal: Paschale sacramentum — Méditation sur la liturgie des trois derniers jours de la Semaine Sainte, Le Rite et l'homme: Sacralité naturelle et liturgie, Introduction à la vie spirituelle: Précis de théologie ascétique et mystique, Le Sens de la vie monastique, and Le Sens de la vie sacerdotale.

There is also this study of his theology:
Connaissance et mystère: L'itinéraire théologique de Louis Bouyer by Davide Zordan.

Google Books: The invisible Father: approaches to the mystery of the divinity

Louis Bouyer: Author's Page at Ignatius Insight
Musings of a Pertinacious Papist: Fr. Louis Bouyer, rest in peace
Fr. Neuhaus

Original source of the following (apparently the blog no longer exists):

Obituary for
Louis Bouyer
1913-2004
by Jean-Robert Armogathe*

Gruff, and sometimes hot-tempered, Louis Bouyer was a hard man to get to know. He was more comfortable talking about his numerous books th an about his life. And yet, it is impossible to understand his theological work without knowing some of the unusual features of his life.

Bouyer was born in 1913 into a pious Protestant family. He very early displayed the theological curiosity that would accompany him throughout his life. After studies in the Protestant faculty of theology in Paris, he became a pastor in the French Reformed Church. In 1938, Pastor Bouyer--then twenty-five years old--published a dazzling commentary, Introduction to John's Gospel. His intellecual personality and his deep knowledge of the Bible found their rood in the liberal Protestantism that he vigorously (and somewhat unfairly) denounced in a pseudonymous pamphlet that he published in 1941.

Bouyer then converted to Catholicism in 1939. He then redid his studies at Paris' Institut Catholique. He was a remarkable student: during his time at the Institut, he complete a thesis on Athanasius ... that he published in 1943 and a five-hundred page account of ... The Pascal Mystery, which was to become a classic reference of the Jewish origins of the Eucharistic liturgy. A few years later, in 1954, Bouyer published a book-length reflection on Protestantism. His conclusion: the best Protestant doctrines were either incomplete or poorly understood Catholic ones.

After his ordination as a preist of the French Oratory, Bouyer taught humanities at Juilly... He was then offered a positionin the history of dogma and of spirituality at the Institut Catholique. The novelty of his positions, together with his sometimes rude manner, earned him the opposition of his Jesuit colleagues, especially of Father--later Cardinal--[Jean] Danielou. Violent intellectual polemics prompted him to leave the "Catho" and France.

Bouyer nonetheless continued to teach, and was active for many years in the United States, first at Notre Dame, and then at the University of San Francisco in California. English speaking readers proved more open to him than their French counterparts, just at the time that the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar was making him known to a German-speaking publish. Bouyer was a tireless writer. Alongside his theological works, he registered his disapointment with post-conciliar trends in popular writings like ... Catholicism Falls Apart. He also pursued his literary bent, penning works of fiction (which he enjoyed dedicating to neighbors) under various pseudonyms.

The Paschal Mystery had earned Bouyer the reputation of being a modernist, but the liturgical reforms begun by Pius XII and continued by the Council proved him right. He became a respected expert on the liturgy, who was equally opposed to the "neomedieval" restorations of the nineteenth century and the often harebrained creations oif the present. Eucharistie (1966), one of his best books, insists on the Jewish origins of the Mass and shows the full richness of the new Eucharistic prayers. For many years, Bouyer was a member of the International Theological Commission founded by Paul VI.

During the 60's, Maxime Charles, the rector of the Sacre-Coeur in Montemartre, asked Bouyer to form a group of young graduate students from the Ecole Normale Superieure during his stays in France. Among these young men were Jean-Luc Marion, Remi Barque, and Jean Duchesne. The sessions Bouyer held with them at the Normal monastery of La Lucerne were decisive for the group that called itself ["Resurrection"], which was the nucleus of what would become the French edition of Communio. Basing himself on material developed during his cources and sessions, Bouyer published his great triple trilogy, the last systematic theology to appear in France.

Bouyer's attention to Scripture, his preference for the Fathers over the Scholastics, and his knowledge of contemporary authors enabled him to construct astonishingly modern work. It is novel, not in the sense of being fashionable, but in the sense of refusing ready-made positions and looking with fresh eyes on Jewish and Christian tradition.

Alongside the Dominican Yves Congar and the Jesuits Jean Danielou and Henri de Lubac, the Oratorian Louis Bouyer was one of the four great post-war French theologians. Unlike the other three, though, Bouyer was never named a Cardinal. John Paul II honored him with a letter of tribute on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. Like Newman, he liked to remined people that converts are often a nuisance in the Church.--Translated by Adrian Walker

*Jean-Robert Armogathe is an editor of the French edition of Communio. This obituary comes from the Winter, 2004 edition of Communio (pg. 688-689). The next issue (summer), which is yet to be released, will contian Jean-Marie Lustiger's Homily for the Funeral Mass for Father Louis Bouyer and Jean Duschesne's Who Is Still Afraid of Louis Bouyer? Also, for those interested in Communion and Liberation, the Winter 2004 edition had Ratzinger's funeral homily for CL founder, Luigi Giussani.

-- Justin Nickelsen