The rise of ressourcement theologyMany of those theologians came from a theological movement in the early to mid-20th century best described as “ressourcement theology”. The detractors of ressourcement theology in the first half of the twentieth century described it pejoratively as la Nouvelle theologie (“The New Theology”). Most, if not all, of the ressourcement theologians were not “Modernists” in the sense spelled out by Pascendi. Neither the Council nor the main ressourcement theologians were champions of an aggressively secular use of historical-critical exegesis. But Popes John Paul and Benedict, and the main ressourcement thinkers, and the Council itself, are not among them.