Jean-Guenolé-Marie Daniélou was born on 14 May 1905 in Neuilly-sur-Seine. He was the son of Charles Daniélou and Madeleine Clamorgan. His father was an anticlerical politician who several times as a minister served in the French government, while his mother was a Catholic educator and the founder of institutions for women's education. His brother Alain (1907–1994) was a noted Indologist and historian.
Thoroughly grounded in the Fathers of the Church, who worked from Scripture, Daniélou generally avoided the neo-Thomistic terminology and approach and used a more relational vocabulary, emphasizing our self-gift in response to God's gift in Jesus Christ, with the gradual unveiling of the Trinitarian life in history.[3]
He died unexpectedly in 1974 in the home of a woman who was alleged to be a prostitute. The Society of Jesus, after an investigation, stated that Daniélou was bringing a gift of money to pay for the bail of the woman's husband. Like a number of other prominent public figures, Daniélou's brother defended him strongly, pointing out that he had always gone out of his way to serve those in most need.[6][7]
Bibliography
A number of Daniélou's works on the early Church, often abridged for a popular audience, remain in print.
French works, with English translations
Platonisme et théologie mystique: Doctrine spirituelle de saint Grégoire de Nysse, (Paris: Aubier, 1944)
'Les orientations preésentes de la pensée religieuse', Études 249, (1946), 5-21
Origène, Table ronde, Paris, 1948 [ET: Origen, trans. Walter Mitchell, (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1955)]
Sacramentum futuri: Études sur les origines de la typologie biblique, (Paris: Beauchesne, 1950)
Bible et liturgie, la théologie biblique des sacrements et des fêtes d'après les Pères de l'Église, Cerf, Paris, 1951 [ET: The Bible and the Liturgy, Liturgical Studies, 3 (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1956)]
Les anges et leur mission, d'après les Pères de l'Église, Desclée, Paris, 1952 [ET: The Angels and their Mission: According to the Fathers of the Church, trans David Heimann, (1957)]
Essai sur le mystère de l'histoire, (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1953)
Dieu et nous, Bernard Grasset, Paris, 1956. [ET: God and the Ways of Knowing, trans. Walter Roberts, (1956; repr San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2023)]
Les manuscrits de la Mer Morte et les origines du Christianisme, L'Orante, Paris, 1957 [ET: The Dead Sea Scrolls and Primitive Christianity, (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1979)]
Histoire des doctrines chrétiennes avant Nicée, 3 vols, (Paris: Desclée, Éditions du Cerf, 1958–1978)
Théologie du Judéo-Christianisme, Histoire des doctrines chrétiennes avant Nicée vol 1, (Tournai: Desclée, 1958) [ET: The Theology of Jewish Christianity, trans. and ed. by John Austin Baker, (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1964)
Message évangélique et culture hellénistique aux IIe et IIIe siècles, Histoire des doctrines chrétiennes avant Nicée vol 2, (Tournai: Desclée, 1961) [ET: Gospel Message and Hellenistic Culture, trans. and ed. John Austin Baker, (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1973)]
Les origines du christianisme latin, Histoire des doctrines chrétiennes avant Nicée vol 3, (Paris: Cerf, 1978) [ET: The Origins of Latin Christianity, (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1977)]
Approches du Christ, (Paris: B. Grasset, 1960) [ET: Christ and Us, trans. Walter Robert, (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1961)]
Les Symboles chrétiens primitifs, Seuil, Paris, 1961
L'Église des premiers temps : Des origines à la fin du IIIe siècle, Seuil, Paris, 1963
(with Henri Marrou), Des origines a saint Grégoire le Grand, (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1963)
Les Évangiles de l'enfance, (Paris: Seuil, 1967) [ET: The infancy narratives, trans Rosemary Sheed, (London: Burns & Oates, 1968)]
La Trinité et le mystère de l'existence, (Desclée de Brouwer, Paris, 1968)
'Saint Hilaire et son temps', in Hilaire de Poitiers: Évêque et docteur; cinq conférences données à Poitiersà l'occasion du XVIe centenaire de sa mort (368-1968), (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1968)
La Foi de toujours et l'homme d'aujourd'hui, (Paris: Beauchesne, 1969)
^Salvador Miranda. "Daniélou, S.J., Jean". The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. Retrieved 23 January 2011.
^"Jean had always dedicated himself to disregarded people. For a certain period he had celebrated a Mass for homosexuals. He tried to help prisoners, criminals, troubled young people, prostitutes." Alain Daniélou.