Alfred Firmin Loisy (; 28 February 18571 June 1940) was a French
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
priest, professor and
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 ...
generally credited as a founder of
modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
in the Roman Catholic Church.
He was a critic of traditional views of the interpretation of the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
, and argued that
biblical criticism
Biblical criticism is the use of critical analysis to understand and explain the Bible. During the eighteenth century, when it began as ''historical-biblical criticism,'' it was based on two distinguishing characteristics: (1) the concern to ...
could be helpful for a theological interpretation of
Sacred Scripture
Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual prac ...
. His theological positions brought him into conflict with the church's authorities, including
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-old ...
and
Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...
. In 1893, he was dismissed as a professor from the
Institut Catholique de Paris
The Institut Catholique de Paris (ICP), known in English as the Catholic University of Paris (and in Latin as ''Universitas catholica Parisiensis''), is a private university located in Paris, France.
History: 1875–present
The Institut Catholiq ...
. His books were condemned by the
Roman Curia, and in 1908 he was
excommunicated
Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...
.
Loisy's most famous observation was that "Jesus came proclaiming the Kingdom, and what arrived was the Church" ("Jésus annonçait le Royaume et c'est l'Église qui est venue." ''L’Evangile et l'Eglise'').
Education
Born on 28 February 1857 at
Ambrières
Ambrières () is a Communes of France, commune in the Marne (department), Marne Departments of France, department in northeastern France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Marne department
References
Communes of Marne (departme ...
,
[ Loisy was put into the ecclesiastical school of ]Saint-Dizier
Saint-Dizier () is a subprefecture Of the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France.
It has a population of 23,382 (2018 figure) and is a subprefecture of the department. Although Saint-Dizier is marginally the most populous commune in Haute ...
at four years old. He decided for the priesthood and was educated from 1874 to 1879 at the Grand séminaire de Châlons-en-Champagne; he entered the Institut Catholique de Paris
The Institut Catholique de Paris (ICP), known in English as the Catholic University of Paris (and in Latin as ''Universitas catholica Parisiensis''), is a private university located in Paris, France.
History: 1875–present
The Institut Catholiq ...
in 1878/1879.[ Prior to his ordination to the subdiaconate, he had experienced doubts regarding the soundness of the Catholic faith.][Boynton, Richard Wilson. "The Catholic Career of Alfred Loisy", ''The Harvard Theological Review'', Vol. 11, No. 1 (1918), pp. 36-73, Cambridge University Press]
/ref> After an illness he returned to the Institut and was ordained a priest on 29 June 1879. Initially assigned parish work, in 1881 he requested to be reassigned to the Institut to complete his baccalauréat
The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...
in theology. That autumn he became instructor in Hebrew. He took additional courses in Hebrew with Ernest Renan
Joseph Ernest Renan (; 27 February 18232 October 1892) was a French Orientalist and Semitic scholar, expert of Semitic languages and civilizations, historian of religion, philologist, philosopher, biblical scholar, and critic. He wrote influe ...
at the Collège de France
The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment (''grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ne ...
. He was also influenced, as to biblical languages and textual criticism, by the Abbé Paulin Martin, and as to a consciousness of the biblical problems and a sense of form by the historical intuition and irony of Abbé Louis Duchesne
Louis Marie Olivier Duchesne (; 13 September 1843 – 21 April 1922) was a French priest, philologist, teacher and a critical historian of Christianity and Roman Catholic liturgy and institutions.
Life
Descended from a family of Breton sailors, ...
. He took his theological degree in March 1890, by the oral defense of forty Latin scholastic theses and by a French dissertation, ''Histoire du canon de l'ancien testament'', published as his first book in that year. By the time he took a course at Saint-Sulpice in scriptural interpretation, he was already disillusioned with the church's belief in the virgin birth and resurrection
Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, which ...
.
Early Biblical criticism
Some of his work appeared in the bi-monthly ''L'Enseignement biblique'', a periodical written throughout and published by himself. In November 1893, Loisy published the last lecture of his course, in which he summed up his position on Biblical criticism
Biblical criticism is the use of critical analysis to understand and explain the Bible. During the eighteenth century, when it began as ''historical-biblical criticism,'' it was based on two distinguishing characteristics: (1) the concern to ...
in five propositions: the Pentateuch
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the sa ...
was not the work of Moses
Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...
, the first five chapters of Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Bible
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...
were not literal history, the New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
and the Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
did not possess equal historical value, there was a development in scriptural doctrine, and Biblical writings were subject to the same limitations as those by other authors of the ancient world. This resulted in Loisy's dismissal from his teaching position. A few days later Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-old ...
published the encyclical ''Providentissimus Deus
''Providentissimus Deus'', "On the Study of Holy Scripture", was an encyclical letter issued by Pope Leo XIII on 18 November 1893. In it, he reviewed the history of Bible study from the time of the Church Fathers to the present, spoke against th ...
'', which indirectly condemned Abbé Loisy's and Mgr d'Hulst's position, and rendered the continued publication of consistently critical work so difficult that Loisy himself suppressed his ''Enseignement'' at the end of 1893. He was subsequently appointed chaplain to a convent in Neuilly, a post from which he resigned in 1899, to be appointed lecturer at the École pratique des hautes études
The École pratique des hautes études (), abbreviated EPHE, is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is highly selective, and counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions. It is a constituent college o ...
, a secular academic institution.
Historical apologetics for the development of the Catholic Church
In 1902, he started to pay attention to Adolf von Harnack
Carl Gustav Adolf von Harnack (born Harnack; 7 May 1851 – 10 June 1930) was a Baltic German Lutheran theologian and prominent Church historian. He produced many religious publications from 1873 to 1912 (in which he is sometimes credited ...
's ''Das Wesen des Christentum''. Harnack believed that the essence of Christianity was the relationship between individual and God, making an organized church a largely unnecessary creation. Loisy disagreed with the idea that the organized church was unnecessary, but the nature of his disagreement brought him controversy. From 1901 to 1903 he published several works that would be condemned by the church. These include ''La Religion d'Israël'', ''Études évangéliques'', ''L'Évangile et L'Église'', ''Autour d'un petit livre'', and ''Le quatrième Évangile''. His 1908 ''Les Évangiles Synoptiques'' would cause his excommunication. In his works he argued against Harnack, trying to show that it was necessary and inevitable for the Catholic Church to form as it did. In doing so, Loisy implicitly accepted the consistent eschatology Consistent eschatology (Thoroughgoing eschatology) is a theory in theological and biblical studies that interprets Jesus "in exclusively eschatological terms". The view was initiated by Johannes Weiss, and "picked up, developed, and popularized" by ...
of Johannes Weiss
Johannes Weiss (December 13, 1863 – August 24, 1914) was a German Protestant theologian and biblical exegete. He was a member of the history of religions school.
History
Weiss was born in Kiel as son of Bernhard Weiss. A perpetual scholar, he ...
: Jesus thought the coming of the Kingdom was imminent, so there was no point in founding a Church. Only after his death and resurrection his original proclamation of the Kingdom was transformed in this sense by his disciples, and legitimately so, as Loisy pointed out against Harnack's conception of Christianity: The second part of the quotation echoes Cardinal Newman's theory on the development of Christian doctrine which Loisy had studied in his time at Neuilly. Although ''L'Évangile et L'Église'' in particular was condemned by Cardinal Richard, Pope Leo consistently refused to interfere directly. It was his successor, Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...
who would later condemn these works.
Another controversial thesis of Loisy, developed in ''La Religion d'Israël'', is the distinction between a pre-Moses period, when the Hebrews worshipped the god El, also known by the plural of this name, Elohim
''Elohim'' (: ), the plural of (), is a Hebrew word meaning "gods". Although the word is plural, in the Hebrew Bible it usually takes a singular verb and refers to a single deity, particularly (but not always) the God of Israel. At other times ...
, and a later stage, when Yahweh
Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he posse ...
gradually became the only deity of the Jews.
His assertions on Jesus went further than Newman's and caused more controversy. He argued that Harnack had been partly correct that an organized church was created in a way unrelated to any plans by Jesus. Loisy argued that Jesus lacked a conscious understanding that he was consubstantial
Consubstantiality, a term derived from la, consubstantialitas, denotes identity of substance or essence in spite of difference in Aspect (religion), aspect.
It appears most commonly in its adjectival form, "consubstantial", from Latin ''cons ...
with God the Father and therefore Jesus did not know how the Catholic Church would "transform". Loisy also argued that, since the articulation of ideas on consubstantiality came from the period surrounding the Council of Nicaea, such notions would have been unknown to and unthinkable by Jesus and his first followers, who saw him largely in Jewish messianic terms. Regardless of who Jesus actually was, he could not have claimed to be what the church taught him to be.
Pope Pius X
Cardinal Sarto became Pope Pius X on 4 August 1903. On 1 October, Loisy published three new books, ''Autour d'un petit livre'', ''Le Quatrième Évangile'' and ''Le Discours sur la Montagne'' (a fragment of a proposed enlarged commentary on the Synoptic Gospels
The gospels of Gospel of Matthew, Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Mark, and Gospel of Luke, Luke are referred to as the synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar or sometimes identical ...
). ''Autour'' consists of seven letters on different topics addressed to church leaders and friends. Urged by the Parisian Archbishop Cardinal Richard, Pius X transferred the scrutiny of Loisy's books, started under Leo XIII in 1901 under the Congregation of the Index, to the Supreme Congregation of the Holy Office
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of the Holy Office in Rome. It was founded to defend the Catholic Church from heresy and is the body responsible f ...
. By 23 December 1903, the Congretation censured Loisy's main exegetical works: ''Religion d'Israël'', ''L'Évangile et l'Église'', ''Études évangéliques'', ''Autour d'un petit livre'' and ''Le Quatrième Évangile''. On 12 January 1904 Loisy wrote to the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Merry del Val, that he received the condemnation with respect, and condemned whatever might be reprehensible in his books, whilst reserving the rights of his conscience and his opinions as an historian. The Holy See was not satisfied, and Loisy sent three further declarations; the last, dispatched on 17 March, was addressed to the pope himself, and remained unanswered. At the end of March, Loisy gave up his lectureship, as he declared, on his own initiative. In April 1907 he returned to his native Lorraine, to his relatives in Ceffonds
Ceffonds () is a commune in the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France.
See also
* Communes of the Haute-Marne department
The following is a list of the 426 communes in the French department of Haute-Marne.
The communes cooperate in t ...
near Montier-en-Der
Montier-en-Der () is a former commune in the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune La Porte du Der.Lamentabili sane exitu
''Lamentabili sane exitu'' ("with truly lamentable results") is a 1907 syllabus, prepared by the Roman Inquisition and confirmed by Pope Pius X, which condemns errors in the exegesis of Holy Scripture and in the history and interpretation of dogm ...
'' (or "A Lamentable Departure Indeed"), which condemned sixty-five propositions from the field of biblical interpretation and the history of dogma. They concerned the nature of the church, revelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities.
Background
Inspiration – such as that bestowed by God on the ...
, biblical exegesis
Biblical criticism is the use of critical analysis to understand and explain the Bible. During the eighteenth century, when it began as ''historical-biblical criticism,'' it was based on two distinguishing characteristics: (1) the concern to ...
, the sacraments
A sacrament is a Christian rite that is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol of the real ...
, and the divinity of Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...
. This was followed a year later by the encyclical '' Pascendi dominici gregis'' (or "Feeding the Lord's Flock"), which characterized modernism as the "synthesis of all heresies
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
".
The documents made Loisy realise that there was no hope for reconciliation of his views with official Catholic doctrine. He made a comparative study of the papal documents to show the condemned propositions in his own writings. He also asserted as true various of his earlier New Testament interpretations, which previously he had formulated in conditional form.
In his journal he wrote:
His Catholic critics commented that his religious system envisions a great society which he believed to be the historical development the Church. For many, the attitude of Loisy and his followers was incomprehensible. Modernists asked, ''How can the Church survive?'' while for Pius X the question was, ''How can these men be priests''?
The censure did not deter Loisy from publishing three further books. ''Les Évangiles synoptiques'', two large volumes of 1,009 and 798 pages, appeared in January 1908. This contains a detailed commentary on the Synoptic Gospels, combining the ecclesiastical tradition, modern criticism, the Gospel narrative, and the tradition of the text and the previous commentaries. The commentary gives also a careful translation of the texts. Loisy recognizes two eye-witness documents, as utilized by all three Gospels. He traces a strong Pauline influence, especially in the Gospel of Mark
The Gospel of Mark), or simply Mark (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). is the second of the four canonical gospels and of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from his baptism by John the Baptist to h ...
. Yet the great bulk of the sayings is acknowledged as substantially authentic; if the historicity of certain words and acts is here denied with unusual assurance, that of other sayings and deeds is established with stronger proofs; and the redemptive conception of the Passion and the sacramental interpretation of the Last Supper
Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...
are found to spring up promptly and legitimately from Christ's work and words. The third book, ''Simples Réflexions sur le décret Lamentabili et sur l'encyclique Pascendi'' (277 pages), was published from Ceffonds a few days after the commentary. Each proposition of the decree is carefully tracked to its probable source, and is often found to modify the latter's meaning. The study of the encyclical concludes: "Time is the great teacher … we would do wrong to despair either of our civilization or of the Church."
The ecclesiastical authorities were not slow to act. On 14 February 1908 Léon-Adolphe Amette
Leon Adolphe Amette (6 September 1850 Douville-sur-Andelle, Eure – 29 August 1920 Antony, Hauts-de-Seine) was a French Catholic Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinal who was archbishop of Paris from 1908 to 1920.
He was made a cardinal in 1911 ...
, archbishop of Paris, prohibited his diocesans to read or defend the two books, which "attack and deny several fundamental dogmas of Christianity," under pain of excommunication. Loisy was excommunicated ''vitandus
A ''vitandus'' (Latin for "one to be avoided") was someone affected by a rare and grave form of excommunication, in which the Catholic Church ordered, as a remedial measure, that the faithful were not to associate with an excommunicated individua ...
'' on 7 March 1908.
After his excommunication Loisy became a secular intellectual. He was appointed Chair of History of Religions in the Collège de France
The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment (''grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ne ...
in 1909 and served there until retiring in 1931. In that post, he continued to develop his philosophy, describing the Christian religion as a humanist system of ethics rather than divine. He also developed his studies of early religions and their influence on Christianity. He never recanted, and died in 1940 in Ceffonds.
Writings
*
*
*
* - Eng. trans. of ''L'Evangile et l'Eglise''
*
* - Eng. trans. of ''La religion d'Israël''
*
*
*
*
* - Eng. trans. of ''Choses passées''
*
*
* - Eng. trans. of ''La naissance du Christianisme''
* - Eng. trans. of ''Les origines du Nouveau Testament''
See also
*Catholic Church in France
, native_name_lang = fr
, image = 060806-France-Paris-Notre Dame.jpg
, imagewidth = 200px
, alt =
, caption = Cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris
, abbreviation =
, type ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
* Biagioli, Ilaria; Laplanche, François; Langlois, Claude (eds), ''Autour d'un petit livre. Alfred Loisy cent ans après'', Paris, Brepols, 2007.
* Boynton, Richard Wilson
"The Catholic Career of Alfred Loisy,"
''The Harvard Theological Review,'' Vol. XI, 1918.
*
*
*
* Loisy, Alfred. L'Évangile et l'Église (Paris: Picard, 1902) ET The Gospel and the Church (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976)
* Mueller, Andreas Uwe, ''Christlicher Glaube und historische Kritik. Maurice Blondel und Alfred Loisy im Ringen um das Verhaeltnis von Schrift und Tradition'' (Freiburg, Herder, 2008).
*
*
* Vieban, A
"A Critical Valuation of Loisy's Theories,"
''The Ecclesiastical Review,'' Vol. XL, 1909.
* .
* This includes an extensive bibliography.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Loisy, Alfred
1857 births
1940 deaths
19th-century French Roman Catholic priests
20th-century French Catholic theologians
20th-century French Roman Catholic priests
Collège de France faculty
French historians of religion
Modernism in the Catholic Church
New Testament scholars
People excommunicated by the Catholic Church
People from Haute-Marne
Roman Catholic biblical scholars
Dissident Roman Catholic theologians