Alfred Loisy
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Alfred Firmin Loisy (28 February 1857 - 1 June 1940) [1] was a French Roman Catholic priest, professor and theologian[1] who became the intellectual standard bearer for Biblical Modernism in the Roman Catholic Church. He was a critic of traditional views of the biblical accounts of creation, and argued that biblical criticism could be applied to interpreting scripture. His theological positions brought him into conflict with the Church's conservatives, including Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius X. In 1893, he was dismissed as a professor from the Catholic Institute of Paris. His books were condemned by the Vatican, and in 1908 he was excommunicated.
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[edit] Life and work
Born on February 28, 1857 at Ambriéres,[1] Loisy was educated within the Catholic system, from 1874-1879 at the Grand Séminaire von Châlons, and entered Institut Catholique at Paris in 1878/1879.[1] He was ordained on June 29th 1879. After an illness he returned to the Institut in 1881 as a professor of Hebrew. He published his "Five Thesis" which was firmly rejected. This Thesis stated that the Pentateuch was not the work of Moses, that the first five chapters of Genesis are not literal history, that the New Testament and the Old Testament do not possess equal historical value, that there has been a development in the religious doctrine in scripture, and that the sacred wirtings have the same limitations as all other authors of the ancient world. In 1899 he resigned and was appointed lecturer at École Practique des Hautes Études, which was not an ecclesial institution.
In 1902, he started to pay attention to van Harnack's "Das Wesen des Christentum." This was because his lectures had been translated. As a defense of Catholicism, he wrote a book called "The Gospel and the Church" which was subsequently condemned because it implied that when Christ came, what we actually received was the Church. Retractions were demanded, especially after he wrote more books that tried to clarify his position, but he was excommunicated on March 7, 1908. He was appointed chair of religions in the college of France until 1931 and died in 1940.
[edit] An Opinion From Alfred Loisy
Alfred Loisy wrote [translated from French], [2]
- The old swelling is before all a man that confesses itself, that confesses itself frequently, and so much more often even than it allows himself less the actions than the Catholic moral looks at as sins. This is a man that practices intellectual obedience, admitting as a rule all that the church sign, and accepting without examination all that it knows of this teaching; not discussing does or feel it or the logical reach of this that it believes; considering itself in the church as a disciple that learns from her this that it must think on all the big subjects that interest the existence, this Well, this that it must practice to be Christian. This a man of which all the activity is located thus regulated by an exterior authority, and that has not concern to think by himself, that would believe itself guilty to take this boldness, that looks at as a virtue the intellectual timidity. It defends himself to think on the religious questions, for fear of think poorly; it instructs himself religion in the vouchers deliver that recommends him his director, and it has not any other ideas that the one that are guaranteed for him as very orthodox and very sure. This type of Catholic exists, it does not be necessary to deny it. It very is not shed, all at least those that realize it in the perfection are not numerous, although one did to multiply them. This is that this not feasible type that to the price of an abdication against nature, to which a lot withstand as of instinct, and that of others push back consciemment as a violation of their personality.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d KIRCHENLEXIKON ("Church Dictionary", with "LOISY, Alfred Firmin"), Bautz.de, 2006-03-23, webpage: Bautz-German-Loisy.
- ^ "Afred Loisy" (biography), French Wikipedia, 2006, webpage: French-WP-Loisy.
[edit] References
- "KIRCHENLEXIKON" ("Church Dictionary", with "LOISY, Alfred Firmin"), Bautz.de, 2006-03-23, webpage: Bautz-German-Loisy.
