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French Politics and Alfred Loisy's Modernism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Harvey Hill
Harvey Hill
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Harvey Hill is assistant professor of religion and philosophy at Berry College.
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Extract

The first decade of the twentieth century was a time of great theological ferment in the Catholic church in France. In order to reconcile Catholic teaching with the latest findings of historical criticism, Alfred Loisy (1857–1940) and other “modernists” proposed sweeping reforms in the Church. From the perspective of Rome, however, these reforms seemed to threaten the very heart of the faith. In Roman eyes, Loisy and his theological allies had adopted the scientific methods of the anticlerical university. Like their secular colleagues but less openly, they then used these methods to subvert the Catholic tradition and the institutional structure of the church. The Vatican defended its embattled faith with a series of measures designed to crush this movement.

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Articles
Information
Church History , Volume 67 , Issue 3 , September 1998 , pp. 521 - 536
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1998

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References

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50. See Houtin, , Histoire du modernisme catholique, 179–84;Google Scholar Rivière, Le Modernisme dans I'église, 349–72; Daly, Gabriel, Transcendence and Immanence: A Study in Catholic Modernism and lntegralism (Oxford: Clarendon, 1980), 165–217, 231–34;Google ScholarWernz, , “Modernist Writings,” 340–45.Google Scholar

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54. X, Pius, “Pascendi dominici gregis,” 3:84–87.Google Scholar See also idem, “Relicturus ecclesiam,” in Actes de S.S. Pie X, 3:200–201: “Here it is in battle ranged and by open war; there one has recourse to ruse and cunning stratagem; but everywhere We see the Church assailed.”

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61. Loisy to A. M. l'abbé X., 17 June 1907, in Loisy, Quelques Lettres, 157.

62. Loisy, , Simples Réflexions sur le Décret du Saint-Office “Lamentabili Sane Exitu” et sur L'Encyclique “Pascendi Dominici Gregis,” 2d ed. (Ceffonds: by the author, 1908), 198–99.Google Scholar

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