Antonin Sertillanges

Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges
Born Antonin-Dalmace Sertillanges
16 November 1863
Clermont-Ferrand, France
Died 26 July 1948 (aged 84)
Sallanches, France
Occupation Author, philosopher, priest
Religion Roman Catholic

Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges, O.P. (French: [sɛʁtijɑ̃ʒ]; 16 November 1863 26 July 1948), was a French Catholic philosopher and spiritual writer.

Biography

Born Antonin-Dalmace, he took the name Antonin-Gilbert when he entered the Dominican order. In 1893 he founded the Revue Thomiste and later became professor of moral philosophy at the Institut Catholique de Paris. Henri Daniel-Rops wrote that it was rumored that President Raymond Poincaré asked Léon-Adolphe Cardinal Amette, Archbishop of Paris, for a reply to Pope Benedict XV's peace proposals, and that Amette passed the request along to Sertillanges; in any event, Amette gave his imprimatur to this reply on 5 December 1917, five days before it was made public. In The Heroic Life,[1] Sertillanges had defended Benedict's attitude toward peace, but in "The French Peace",[2] Sertillanges said, "Most Holy Father, we cannot for an instant entertain your appeals for peace."[3]

His scholarly work was concerned with the moral theory of Thomas Aquinas. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for two non-specialist works. The Intellectual Life is a practical guide for how to structure one's life so as to make progress as a scholar. What Jesus Saw from the Cross is a spiritual work that drew upon the time Sertillanges spent living in Jerusalem. Certain of Sertillanges' works are concerned with political theory, with French identity and the structure of the traditional French family.

See also

Notes

  1. La vie héroïque, Third Series, 1916, esp. pp. 166184.
  2. Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges (1917), "La paix française", discours prononcé en l'église Sainte-Madeleine le lundi 10 décembre 1917, en la cérémonie religieuse et patriotique prédisée par S.E. le Cardinal Archevêque de Paris, Paris: Blond et Gay.
  3. Henri Daniel-Rops (1964/1967), A Fight for God, 18701939, trans., John Warrington, from L'Église de Révolutions: Un combat pour Dieu, reprint, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Vol. II, Notes to Ch. VII, "War and Peace", p. [243], n. 2.

Works

Articles

Works in English translation

References

Further reading

External links