Henri de Lubac’s “Mystical Confrontation” with Nietzsche

Henri de Lubac is well‐known for his critical writings on atheist humanists like Friedrich Nietzsche, whom he saw as the most formidable opponent of Christianity. However, few have appreciated the extent to which de Lubac’s confrontation with Nietzsche provided him with an additional motive for creatively retrieving early Christian sources. This article examines de Lubac’s engagement with Nietzsche across his career, focusing on his interpretation of Nietzsche as a mystic. It demonstrates how de Lubac’s understanding of Nietzsche’s mysticism is informed by his resistance to anti‐Semitism and his critique of rationalism in the contemporary French Church. It also shows how this confrontation occasioned some of de Lubac’s most important thoughts on the apologetic value of the Catholic mystical tradition. De Lubac’s response to Nietzsche, therefore, has significant implications for understanding his theology as a whole and the nature of Christian engagement with contemporary atheism.