Albert Réville (4 November 1826,

Dieppe, Seine-Maritime Dieppe (; Norman: ''Dgieppe'') is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to Newh ...

25 October 1906) was a distinguished French

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

, known for his 'extremist' liberal views. He is also known for being one of the first "intellectuals" to join the Dreyfusard cause when the

Dreyfus Affair The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...

erupted in the 1890s. Réville was born in

. After studying at the universities of

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

and Strassburg, he became pastor at

Luneray Luneray () is a Communes of France, commune in the Seine-Maritime Departments of France, department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region in northern France. Geography A small town of farming and light industry situated in the ...

(near Dieppe), and from 1851 to 1872 he was pastor of the Walloon church in Rotterdam. In 1880 he became professor of the History of Religions in the Collège de France, during the course of which he helped found the ''Revue de l'histoire des religions'' with

Maurice Vernes Maurice Vernes (25 September 1845, in Nauroy – 29 July 1923, in Paris) was a French Protestant theologian and historian of religion. He studied theology at the Protestant seminary in Montauban and the University of Strasbourg, receiving his d ...

. In 1886, he was appointed as the inaugural President of the new " Fifth Section" for Religious Sciences at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris. He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1886. He was a prolific writer on the comparative history of world religions. In addition to the history of Christianity, he published on the native religions of Central America (about which he gave the 1884 Hibbert Lectures), Chinese religion and the history of the idea of the Devil. He was a notable advocate of David Strauss'

vision hypothesis The vision theory or vision hypothesis is a term used to cover a range of theories that question the physical resurrection of Jesus, and suggest that sightings of a risen Jesus were visionary experiences. It was first formulated by David Friedric ...

, that the accounts of the resurrection of Jesus were historically due to a vision caused by nervous tension by Mary Magdalene and subsequent mass hysteria among the disciples.Rush Rhees ''The Life of Jesus of Nazareth'' 2007 "This last explanation has in recent times been revived in connection with the so-called vision-hypothesis by Renan and Réville. Mary found the tomb empty, and being herself of a highly strung nervous nature—she had been cured by Jesus of " His son,

Jean Réville Jean Réville (6 November 1854 – 6 May 1908) was a French Protestant theologian born in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He was the son of theologian Albert Réville (1826–1906). He studied theology at Geneva, Berlin and Heidelberg, obtaining his ...

, was also a theologian.

Translated works

*''Storia del Diavolo'', Lulu Press, Raleigh (NC), 2018, Italian version of ''Histoire du Diable'' (1870), translated by Rev. Marco Lupi Speranza, .

References

External links

* * 1826 births 1906 deaths People from Dieppe, Seine-Maritime 19th-century Protestant theologians French Protestant theologians Academic staff of the University of Paris 19th-century French theologians Members of the American Philosophical Society {{France-reli-bio-stub