The French Catholic priest and biblical scholar Alfred Loisy (1857-1940) was at the heart of the Roman Catholic Modernist crisis in the early part of the twentieth century. He saw much of his work as an attempt to bring John Henry Newman’s notion of development of doctrine into the realm of Catholic biblical studies, and thereby transform Catholic theology. This volume situates Loisy’s better known works on the New Testament and theology in the context of his lesser known work in Assyriology and Old Testament studies. His early training in Assyriology taught Loisy a comparative historical approach to studying ancient texts, in addition to providing him the requisite training in ancient Near Eastern languages and literature. Loisy built upon this Assyriological foundation with his historical critical work in biblical studies, first in the Old Testament. In his biblical scholarship, Loisy combined the then current trends of historical biblical criticism with his more comparative approach. Prior to his excommunication in 1908, Loisy attempted in his more popular writings to defend the inclusion of historical biblical criticism in the repertoire of Catholic biblical interpretation. He saw this as an important step in reforming Catholic theology. The Modernist crisis set the stage for the major debates that would occur in the Catholic theological world for more than a century. The controversy over Modernism became one important conflict that helped pave the way for the Second Vatican Council. The issues raised during Loisy’s time, remain contested today. Examining how Loisy approached biblical studies helps readers better understand his overall work, and the place it played in the pivotal intellectual turmoil of his day.
This monograph studies the professionalization of History of religions as an academic discipline in late 19th and early 20th century France and Europe. Its common thread is the work of the French Modernist priest and later Professor of History of religions at the Collège de France, Alfred Loisy (1857-1940), who participated in many of the most topical debates among French and international historians of religions. Unlike his well-studied Modernist theology, Loisy’s writings on comparative religion, and his rich interactions with famous scholars like F. Cumont, M. Mauss, or J.G. Frazer, remain largely unknown. This monograph is the first to paint a comprehensive picture of his career as a historian of religions before and after his excommunication in 1908. Through a contextual analysis of publications by Loisy and contemporaries, and a large corpus of private correspondence, it illuminates the scientification of the discipline between 1890-1920, and its deep entanglement with religion, politics, and society. Particular attention is also given to the role of national and transnational scholarly networks, and the way they controlled the theoretical and institutional frameworks for studying the history of religions.
In the nineteenth century, most people assumed that the "modern spirit" and Catholicism, the great "religion of authority," were irreconcilably opposed. However, some tried to combine the two in a reformed and modernized Catholicism. These efforts, and the reaction of the institutional Church against them, precipitated the Modernist Crisis. Alfred Loisy (1857--1940) was at the center of this dramatic conflict between advocates and opponents of "modernity." Loisy believed that his adoption of scientific methods to study the Bible and the history of Christianity necessarily committed him to a campaign to modernize Catholicism as a whole. In this book, Harvey Hill describes the emergence, articulation, and ultimate fate of Loisy's reform program as he interacted with allies and opponents of his modernizing agenda. By tracing Loisy's early intellectual and religious development in more detail than have previous scholars, Hill shows how Loisy self-consciously placed his historical scholarship at the service of a positive reform agenda from the very beginning of his ecclesiastical career and that he viewed this reform agenda as an intrinsic part of his critical work. Drawing on some of Loisy's unpublished writings and little-known articles, Hill goes on to demonstrate that Loisy's efforts to reform Catholicism presupposed a new view of the nature and limits of Church authority in relation to the secular state as well as to modern scholarship. Hill uses Loisy's political views to illustrate the more general challenge to ecclesiastical authority that was, again, an intrinsic part of the modern scientific study of religion as Loisy understood it. Hill's interpretation of Loisy and the theology and politics of the scientific study of religion will interest students of Catholic Modernism, the history of modern religion, and the emergence of religious studies as an academic discipline. Harvey Hill is Assistant Professor of Religion at Berry College. He is the coeditor of Personal Faith and Institutional Commitment: Roman Catholic Modernist and Anti-Modernist Autobiography and author of numerous essays, articles, and reviews. Praise for the book: "One is unlikely to find in any language a clearer, better written introduction to the neuralgic career of Alfred Loisy than Harvey Hill's. In addition to its clarity, what sets it apart from the many studies of Loisy is its well-argued conception of the historical integrity of Loisy's mature modernist works as growing out of ideas he formulated in the 1870's and the 1880's to which other scholars have paid scant attention. . . . Out of an artful rehearsal of the conflicts with church authorities over Loisy's historical criticism of Scripture and tradition with implications for doctrine, what emerges is a clarification of the role of Loisy's political interests--thus the book's title. . . . Far from taking sides in the conflict between Loisy and the church authorities, Hill maintains aesthetic distance."--David G. Schultenover, S.J., Catholic Historical Review " A] much needed book on the role of Loisy and the scientific study of religion. This is a valuable study of an important individual and time in the contemporary history of the Catholic Church. It is also most relevant, as it addresses an actual dilemma for many Catholic intellectuals today. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the contemporary history of the Church and for those searching for an adequate relation of faith and reason."--Lucien J. Richard, OMI, Catholic Library World "Harvey Hill has succeeded in breaking new ground in this study, in which he insightfully sets forth issues underlying Loisy's writings, and tests his judgments against the secondary literature. . . . More than previous scholars Hill clarifies the extent of Loisy's political interests. . . . Hill's ability to co
A comprehensive survey of how scientific disciplines have always been informed by politics and ideology on the basis of the Gramscian views in historical materialism, hegemony and civil society.
Can we know that Satan exists as a particular, disembodied spirit? Current Catholic teaching insists that Satan exists as a person, a fallen angel who has instigated the Fall of humanity, continues to influence humans today, and constitutes a singular nemesis to God. How, one might ask, could human beings know such a thing with certainty? In response, this book seeks to rescue the mythical language in which the doctrine of Satan is rooted so that it is freed from the unreasonable expectation that it affirms the existence of a particular creature, and can instead express theological truth that is of relevance to all free-willed creatures. In doing so, it addresses thorny questions concerning the interpretation of Scripture, the relationship between God and evil, between doctrine and truth, between the Church and modernity, and between the condemnatory impulses apparent in Christian thought and the doctrine of an omnipresent God of infinite mercy. The book detects in the doctrine of Satan the expression of fundamental truths concerning the Creator-creature relationship—truths that are too easily obfuscated in current formulations that invite either fundamentalism or incredulity.
The Idea of Semitic Monotheism examines some major aspects of the scholarly study of religion in the long nineteenth century—from the Enlightenment to the First World War. It aims to understand the new status of Judaism and Islam in the formative period of the new discipline. Guy G. Stroumsa focuses on the concept of Semitic monotheism, a concept developed by Ernest Renan around the mid-nineteenth century on the basis of the postulated and highly problematic contradistinction between Aryan and Semitic families of peoples, cultures, and religions. This contradistinction grew from the Western discovery of Sanskrit and its relationship with European languages, at the time of the Enlightenment and Romanticism. Together with the rise of scholarly Orientalism, this discovery offered new perspectives on the East, as a consequence of which the Near East was demoted from its traditional status as the locus of the Biblical revelations. This innovative work studies a central issue in the modern study of religion. Doing so, however, it emphasizes the new dualistic taxonomy of religions had major consequences and sheds new light on the roots of European attitudes to Jews and Muslims in the twentieth century, up to the present day.
Today we hear renewed calls for a dialogue between science and religion: why has the old question of the relations between science and religion now returned to the public domain and what is at stake in this debate? To answer these questions, historian and sociologist of science Yves Gingras retraces the long history of the troubled relationship between science and religion, from the condemnation of Galileo for heresy in 1633 until his rehabilitation by John Paul II in 1992. He reconstructs the process of the gradual separation of science from theology and religion, showing how God and natural theology became marginalized in the scientific field in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In contrast to the dominant trend among historians of science, Gingras argues that science and religion are social institutions that give rise to incompatible ways of knowing, rooted in different methodologies and forms of knowledge, and that there never was, and cannot be, a genuine dialogue between them. Wide-ranging and authoritative, this new book on one of the fundamental questions of Western thought will be of great interest to students and scholars of the history of science and of religion as well as to general readers who are intrigued by the new and much-publicized conversations about the alleged links between science and religion.
Stressing the historical and theological significance of pivotal figures and movements, William Baird guides the reader through intriguing developments and critical interpretation of the New Testament from its beginnings in Deism through the watershed of the Tubingen school. Familiar figures appear in a new light, and important, previously forgotten stages of the journey emerge. Baird gives attention to the biographical and cultural setting of persons and approaches, affording both beginning student and seasoned scholar an authoritative account that is useful for orientation as well as research.
