Jean de Menasce

Jean de Menasce, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and Eric Siepmann. Photo by Lady Ottoline Morrell, 1922.

Jean de Menasce (1902–1973) was a French Catholic priest, of the Dominican Order, as well as an author and academic. He came from Jewish Egyptian and French parentage. Over his lifetime he mastered fifteen languages, including Hebrew, Syriac, and Pahlavi. With others he represented the Catholic Church among Jewish and Protestant leaders at an important post-war interfaith conference. Menasce wrote as a theologian, and as a scholar of Middle Eastern studies, especially of Judaism and of the Zoroastrian religion.[1]

Life and career

Early years

Jean de Menasce was born in Alexandria on 24 December 1902 into a well-established family in the Jewish community in Egypt. His father, Baron Félix de Menasce, a banker with Austro-Hungarian links, was in fact the head of the Jewish community in Alexandria; he had been raised to the peerage by the Emperor of Austria. Jean's mother was French.[2] A cousin of Jean de Menasce was the writer and diplomat fr:Georges Cattaui, six years his senior.[3] A second cousin was the composer and pianist Jacques de Menasce.

After the lycée français, Jean de Menasce studied at the French School of Law (in Cairo), then continued his education at Oxford University and the Sorbonne. Since the early 1920s he had participated in the naissance of Jewish-Christian dialogues. At Oxford's Balliol College, he was a classmate of the novelist Graham Greene, who was also a convert to Catholicism. He translated the works of the poet T. S. Eliot into French, and in 1922 also translated writings of the philosopher Bertrand Russel, whom he knew as members of Lady Ottoline Morrell's salon at Oxford.[4] He translated works of John Donne the 17th century English poet, and of Max Scheler, the contemporary German phenomenologist. Thus he already enjoyed some recognition when in 1926 he converted to Catholicism.[5][6]

In the meantime, de Menasce had continued to study law and philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris. Then, while pursuing his nurtured interest in Zionism, Haim Weizman, a secular family friend and future President of Israel, appointed him secretary of the Zionist Bureau in Geneva. He traveled to Jerusalem.[7] Returning to Paris, de Menasce entered a period of personal spiritual crisis, and painful growth. He began his lifelong friendship with the Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain and his Jewish wife Raissa, both converts from agnosticism twenty years earlier. Another decisive new friend was Louis Massignon, a scholar whose 4-volume study of the Islamic mystic Al-Hallaj had just been published.[8] Massignon, also a convert, had met de Menasce at the La Revue juive [The Jewish Review].[9][10]

In this learned milieu, in an atmosphere of intense spiritual awareness, de Menasce converted.[11] During his formative approach with Massignon he had discussed Theresa of Avila and Francis of Assisi. After his baptism he spent the first months writing Quand Israel aime Dieu, on Hassidism.[12] According to Adrian Hastings the book was "an exceptionally beautiful study of Jewish Hasidic holiness. It was, in a way, his farewell tribute to the religion of his ancestors, but one feels that he was able to make it only after he had rediscovered the God of Israel through the discovery of Jesus as Messiah." He then spent two years in Cairo at his father's request. In 1930 he entered the Dominican Order. His formation for the priesthood was conducted in Belgium at fr:Le Saulchoir de Kain, and he was ordained in 1935.[13][14][15]

As scholar-priest

Following an earlier suggestion of Massignon, Fr. Jean de Menasce pursued studies in the Syriac language, which led him into the academic world of religious studies, eventually as a professor. "The relationship of Christianity to Judaism and Islam, and to all the great world religions was central to his missiology." Hence his scholarly affinity to the Islamists Massignon, Abd-el Jalil, and Louis Gardet, as well as Hendrik Kraemer. In this context the convert de Menasce approached the theme of Catholic missions after the second world war.[16] He also participated in the neo-Thomist revival within his Church, led by Maritain and Charles Journet among others.[17]

The priest and professor exerted an important influence within the specific milieu of French Catholic intellectuals, e.g., he was a close friend of the art critic fr:Stanislas Fumet, the essayist Charles Du Bos, the philosopher Maritain, and the ill-fated writer Maurice Sachs.[18] De Menasce played a major role in the painful, yet persistent and hopeful, evolution of Jewish-Christian relations.[19] He was one of nine Catholic participants at the Seelisberg Conference on the Shoah in 1947, the international gathering of Jews and Christians in Switzerland sponsored by the International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ).[20] During this post-war period, de Menasce lectured on contemporary Jewish thought, e.g., that of Emmanuel Levinas.[21]

In Iranian studies de Menasce excelled. He became a recognized expert, a leader in the field. In the late 1930s he had studied with Émile Benveniste in Fribourg. During the war he prepared his translation of the Škand-Gumānīk Vičār by Mardan-Farrukk, a ninth century Zoroastrian. The book included transcriptions of the text in Pahlavi and in Pazand, a glossary, and his extensive annotations, e.g., on the comparative theology of this polemical work, which consciously employs reason to criticize the monotheism of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Each chapter is introduced, translated into French, and followed by commentary. The clarity of his language was remarkable. The book was dedicated to his teacher and friend, Émile Benveniste.[22][23]

In 1947 the University of Paris invited him to give a series of seminars at the Sorbonne on the Zoroastrian Denkart, which were later published.[24] He taught at Harvard and Princeton in 1954-1955, where he renewed his friendship with Jacques Maritain. His academic output on Zoroastrian subjects accumulated, including an article on imperial Sassanid law.[25] De Menasce illustrated points of convergence between Zoroastrian reason and the Muslim philosophic school of Mu'tazila, whereby the Divine would be divorced from "all cause" [toute causalité] of evil in the world. His continued study of the Denkart eventually resulted in further seminars at the Sorbonne in 1962-1964, and the posthumous publication of his work on the Denkart's third book.[26][27]

The published works of de Menasce include books and articles on diverse subjects, such as theology, philosophy, law, history of religions, Zoroastrianism, and regarding Judaism, Zionism, and Hassidism.[28] Starting in 1936 he had served as professor at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.[29][30] He also became in 1939 in Paris research professor for the religions of ancient Iran. In 1945 de Menasce participated in founding the journal Nouvelle Revue de Science Missionaire/Neue Zeitschrift fur Missionswissenechaft.[31] From 1949 until 1970 he was Director of Studies at l'École pratique des hautes études in Paris;[32] here an academic chair had been created especially for him.

A Muslim colleague said of him, "[H]e made possible a degree of communication amongst us that would have been much more difficult in his absence." After suffering strokes in 1959 and 1969, Father de Menasce died at the age of 70 in 1973.[33][34]

Bibliography

Selected publications

Books

Articles

Translations

Criticism, commentary

Books

Articles

Reference notes

The initial version of this article was translated in July 2012 from French Wikipedia: fr:Jean de Menasce.

  1. ↑ See text below for source referrals.
  2. ↑ Adrian Hastings, "The Legacy of Pierre Jean de Menasce".
  3. ↑ Gignoux et Tafazzoli, "J. P. de Menasce 1902-1973 Biographie", p. vii, note 2.
  4. ↑ Anaël Levy, "Jean de Menasce: juif, sioniste, prétre" at pp. 3, 4-5, 6-9 (Jewish-Christian dialogue [de Menasce would combat anti-Semitism]), p.4 (Oxford personalities).
  5. ↑ Hastings, "The Legacy of Pierre Jean de Menasce" (schools; Eliot, Russell). Russell would publish his Why I am not a Christian in 1927, notes Hastings.
  6. ↑ Gignoux et Tafazzoli, "J. P. de Menasce 1902-1973 Biographie", pp. vii-viii (Jewish family of Egypt, mother, schools, Donne, Scheler).
  7. ↑ Dominique Avon, Les Frères prêcheurs en Orient : Les dominicains du Caire, p. 141.
  8. ↑ Massignon, La Passion de Hallaj. Martyr mystique de l'Islam, 1922.
  9. ↑ Hastings, "The Legacy of Pierre Jean de Menasce" (Weizman; Maritain, Massignon).
  10. ↑ Avon, Les Frères prêcheurs en Orient : Les dominicains du Caire (La Revue juive and Massignon).
  11. ↑ Levy, "Jean de Menasce: juif, sioniste, prétre" at 3, 5 (de Menasce's academic friends are described as "philsémite chrétiens").
  12. ↑ This work by de Menasce was not published until 1931 (see Bibliography). Perhaps its title in English could be: When Israel befriended God.
  13. ↑ Hastings, "The Legacy of Pierre Jean de Menasce" (baptism; book, quote; Cairo; ordination).
  14. ↑ Gignoux et Tafazzoli, "J. P. de Menasce 1902-1973 Biographie", p. viii (his baptism), and note 6 (his "très belle" book on the Hassidim, Quand Israël aime Dieu).
  15. ↑ Avon, Les Frères prêcheurs en Orient : Les dominicains du Caire (baptism and Massignon).
  16. ↑ Cf., Levy, "Jean de Menasce: juif, sioniste, prétre" at p. 7 (de Menasce delicately deferred opposition to the conversion of Jews).
  17. ↑ Marc R. Spindler, "Menasce, Pierre Jean de 1902-1973 Catholic (Dominican) Egypt" (missiology quote; Islamists).
  18. ↑ GoldenMap.com, "Jean de Menasce".
  19. ↑ Levy, "Jean de Menasce: juif, sioniste, prétre" at 3, 8-9. He regarded his conversion as an opportunity to foster a Jewish-Christian presence in Israel.
  20. ↑ Cf., "International Conference of Christians and Jews. Seelisberg, Switzerland, 1947. An Address to the Churches". Retrieved 14 March 2009.
  21. ↑ Levy, "Jean de Menasce: juif, sioniste, prétre" at pp. 7-9 (Seelisberg), p. 6 (Lévinas). Evidently during the war Jews were safe in "Fribourg des réfugiés" (p.7).
  22. ↑ Jean de Menasce, Škand-Gumānīk Vičār (1945).
  23. ↑ Gignoux et Tafazzoli, "J. P. de Menasce 1902-1973 Biographie", pp. viii-x. (Benveniste, SVG).
  24. ↑ A collection of his essays, Une Encyclopédie mazdiénne, le Dēnkart (1958).
  25. ↑ de Menasce, "Feux et fondations pieuses dans le droit sassanide" (1964).
  26. ↑ de Menasce, Le Troisième Livre du Dēnkart ([1973], 1984).
  27. ↑ Gignoux et Tafazzoli, "J. P. de Menasce 1902-1973 Biographie", pp. xi-xiv. (Sorbonne seminars, Sassanid law, Mu'tazila, Troisième Livre).
  28. ↑ Levy, "Jean de Menasce: juif, sioniste, prétre" at p. 9. His pro-Israel concerns seemed to include a society of converted Jews who'd remain Jews to the Zionist state.
  29. ↑ de Menasce, Škand-Gumānīk Vičār (1945).
  30. ↑ Hastings, "The Legacy of Pierre Jean de Menasce".
  31. ↑ Spindler, "Menasce, Pierre Jean de 1902-1973 Catholic (Dominican) Egypt" (the journal was edited by Johannes Beckmann).
  32. ↑ Éditions du Cerf, "Jean de Menasce (1902-1973)".
  33. ↑ Gignoux et Tafazzoli, "J. P. de Menasce 1902-1973 Biographie", p. xi (strokes), p. xv (quote of H. Mahamedi).
  34. ↑ Starting text of this article translated 11 July 2012 from "Jean de Menasce" at Wikipédia francophone.

Further reading

Annexes


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