Modernism (Roman Catholicism)

Part of a series on the
History of Christian theology
Background
Theology · Early Christianity · Timeline · History of Christianity · Ecclesiastical polity · Trinitarianism · Nontrinitarianism · Restorationism · Christology · Mariology · Biblical canon · Deuterocanonical books
Ecumenical Creeds
Apostles' · Nicene Chalcedonian · Athanasian
Patristics and Councils
Church Fathers · Augustine Nicaea · Ephesus · Chalcedon
Post-Nicene development
Heresy · Monophysitism · Monothelitism · Iconoclasm · Gregory I · Alcuin · Photios · East–West Schism · Scholasticism · Aquinas · Anselm · Palamas
Reformation
Protestant Reformation · Luther · Melanchthon · Indulgences · Justification · Five solae · 95 Theses · Book of Concord · Predestination · Calvinism · Arminianism · English Reformation · Counter-Reformation · Trent
Since the Reformation
Pietism · John Wesley · Great Awakenings · Holiness movement · Restoration Movement · Existentialism · Liberalism · Modernism (Roman Catholicism) · Postmodernism · Vatican II · Radical Orthodoxy · Hermeneutics · Liberation theology · Christian anarchism
Christianity portal

Modernism refers to theological opinions expressed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but with influence reaching into the 21st century, which are characterized by a break with the past. Catholic modernists form an amorphous group. The term "modernist" appears in Pope Pius X's 1907 encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis.^[1] Modernists, and what are now termed "Neo-Modernists", generally do not openly use this label in describing themselves. Traditionalist Catholics, however, continue to use the term.

Modernists came to prominence in French and British intellectual circles and, to a lesser extent, in Italy.^[2] The Modernist movement was influenced by Protestant theologians and clergy, starting with the Tübingen school in the mid-19th century. Some modernists, however, such as George Tyrrell, would disagree with this; Tyrrell saw himself as loyal to the unity of the Church, and disliked liberal Protestantism.^[3]

Forms of Modernism in the Church

Modernism in the Catholic Church was the subject of the encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis of Pope St. Pius X.^[4] Modernism may be described under the following broad headings:

• A rationalistic approach to the Bible. The rationalism that was characteristic of the Enlightenment took a protomaterialistic view of miracles and of the historicity of biblical narratives. This approach sought to interpret the Bible by focusing on the text itself as a prelude to considering what the Church Fathers had traditionally taught about it. This method was readily accepted by Protestants and Anglicans. It was the natural consequence of Martin Luther’s sola scriptura doctrine, which asserts that Scripture is the highest authority, and that it can be relied on alone in all things pertaining to salvation and the Christian life.
• Secularism and other Enlightenment ideals. The ideal of secularism can be briefly stated as follows: the best course of action in politics and other civic fields is that which flows from a common understanding of the Good by various groups and religions. By implication, Church and State should be separated and the laws of the latter, for example that forbidding murder, should cover only the common ground of thought systems held by various religious groups. From the secularists’ point of view it was possible to distinguish between political ideas and structures that were religious and those that were not, but Catholic theologians in the mainstream argued, following St. Thomas Aquinas, that such a distinction was not possible: All aspects of society were to be organized with the final goal of Heaven in mind. However, the humanist model which had been in the forefront of intellectual thought since the Renaissance and the scientific revolution was directly opposed to the Thomist view.
• Modern philosophical systems. Philosophers such as Kant and Bergson inspired the mainstream of Modernist thought. One of the latter’s main currents attempted to synthesize the vocabularies, epistemologies, metaphysics and other features of certain modern systems of philosophy with Catholicism in much the same way as the Scholastic order had earlier attempted to synthesize Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy with the Church's teaching.
• Theological rebellion in contradistinction or opposition to the Church's official policies, notably among Jesuits and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

As more naturalistic and scientific studies of history appeared, a way of thinking called historicism arose which suggested that ideas are conditioned by the age in which they are expressed; thus modernists generally believed that most dogma or teachings of the Church were novelties which arose because of specific circumstances obtaining at given points in its history. At the same time rationalism and literary criticism reduced the possible role of the miraculous, so that the philosophical systems in vogue at the time taught among other things that the existence of God could never be known (see Agnosticism). Theology, formerly “queen of the sciences”, was dethroned,^[5] and it was argued that religion must primarily be caused by, and thus be centred on, the feelings of believers. This argument bolsters the impact of secularism by weakening any position supporting the favouring of one religion over another in a given state, on the principle that if no scientific and reasonable assumption of its truth can be made, society should not be so organised as to privilege any particular religion.

Evolution of dogma

The final overall teaching of Modernism is that dogmata (the teachings of the Church, which its members are required to believe) can evolve over time – not only in their expression but also in their substance – rather than remaining the same in substance for all time. This postulate was what made Modernism unique in the history of heresies in the Church. Previously, a heretic (someone who believed and taught something different from what the rest of the church believed) would either claim that he was right and the rest of the Church was wrong because he had received a new revelation from God, or that he had understood the true teaching of God which had previously been understood but was later lost. Both of these scenarios almost inevitably led to an organisational separation from the Church (schism) or the offender’s being ejected from it (excommunication). Using the new idea that doctrines evolve, it was possible for the modernist to believe that both the old teachings of the Church and his new, seemingly contradictory teachings were correct — each group had its time and place. This system allows almost any type of new belief which the modernist in question might wish to introduce, and for this reason Modernism was labelled by Pope Pius X as "the synthesis of all heresies".

The "evolution of dogma" theory (see Development of doctrine), much in the manner of Luther’s theory of salvation sola fide ('by faith alone') allows for a constant updating of standards of morality. The phrase sola fide derives from Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium, a Eucharistic hymn by St. Thomas Aquinas: et si sensus deficit, | ad firmandum cor sincerum | sola fides sufficit. Since majority moral standards shifted heavily during the 20th century, Catholics not accepting the theory were placed in the position of having to abstain from receiving Communion if they wished to engage in some of the actions of some of their fellow-religionists. As for the others, the theory that dogma can change enabled them, as they saw it, to “update” Catholic morality while not being concerned with possible contradictions.

Official Church response

In 1893, Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Providentissimus Deus affirmed in principle the legitimacy of Biblical criticism only insofar as it was pursued in a spirit of faith. In 1903 Leo established a Pontifical Biblical Commission to oversee those studies and ensure that they were conducted with respect for the Catholic doctrines on the inspiration and interpretation of scripture.

Pope Pius X, who succeeded Leo, was the first to identify Modernism as a movement. He frequently condemned both its aims and ideas, and was deeply concerned by the ability of Modernism to allow its adherents to go on believing themselves strict Catholics while having an understanding markedly different from the traditional one as to what that meant (a consequence of the notion of evolution of dogma). In July 1907 the Holy Office published the document Lamentabili sane exitu, a sweeping condemnation which distinguished sixty-five propositions as Modernist heresies. In September of the same year Pius X promulgated an encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis, followed in 1910 by the introduction of an anti-Modernist oath to be taken by all Catholic bishops, priests and academic teachers of religion.

To ensure enforcement of these decisions, Monsignor Umberto Benigni organized, through his personal contacts with theologians, an unofficial group of censors who would report to him those thought to be teaching condemned doctrine. This group was called the Sodalitium Pianum, i.e. Fellowship of Pius (X), which in France was known as La Sapinière. Its frequently overzealous and clandestine methods often hindered rather than helped the Church in its combat with Modernism.^[6]

In the period between World War II and the Cold War Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange O.P. was the "torchbearer of orthodox Thomism" against Modernism.^[7] Garrigou-Lagrange, who was a professor of philosophy and theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, is commonly held to have influenced the decision in 1942 to place the privately circulated book Une école de théologie: le Saulchoir (Étiolles 1937) by Marie-Dominique Chenu O.P. on the Vatican's "Index of Forbidden Books" as the culmination of a polemic within the Dominican Order between the Angelicum supporters of a speculative scholasticism and the French revival Thomists who were more attentive to historical hermeneutics, such as Yves Congar O.P.. Congar's Chrétiens désunis was also suspected of Modernism because its methodology derived more from religious experience than from syllogistic analysis.^[8]

Since Pope Paul VI, most Church authorities have largely dropped the term "modernism", preferring instead in the interest of precision to call beliefs such as secularism, liberalism or relativism by their several names. The older term has however remained current in the usage of many Traditionalist Catholics and conservative critics within the Church.

Notable Catholic Modernists

Major figures

• Alfred Loisy (1857–1940), a French priest whose L'Évangile et L’Église (1902) sparked the crisis; he was excommunicated vitandus in 1908
• George Tyrrell (1861–1909), expelled from the Jesuits in 1906 for his views
• Maude Petre (1863–1942), English nun, close friend of Tyrrell, and a participant in the modernist movement as well as one of its first historians and critics^[9]
• Ernesto Buonaiuti (1881–1946), who as a scholar of the history of Christianity and of religious philosophy, was a leader in the Italian modernist movement
• Pierre Batiffol (1861–1929), historian of dogma^[10]

Other, less public modernists

• Louis Duchesne, historian of the Church
• Henri Bremond
• Friedrich von Hügel

See also

• Buddhist modernism
• Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy
• Integrism
• Islam and modernity
• Liberal Catholicism
• Modern Orthodox Judaism
• Nouvelle Théologie
• Joseph Malègue

Notes

References

• Acton, The Lord, 'The history of freedom' and other essays; an outsider’s criticism.
• Alfonso Botti, Rocco Cerrato (ed.), Il modernismo tra cristianità e secolarizzazione, Urbino, QuattroVenti, 2001
• Altholz, Josef L.: The Liberal Catholic movement in England, 1962
• Amerio, Romano (1996). Iota unum : a study of changes in the Catholic Church in the XXth century. Kansas City MO: Sarto House. ISBN 9780963903211. 
• Bourmaud, Dominique (2006). One hundred years of modernism : a history of modernism, Aristotle to the Second Vatican Council. Kansas City, Mo.: Angelus Press. ISBN 9781892331434. OCLC 72871306. 
• Fawkes, Alfred (1913). Studies in modernism by the Rev. Alfred Fawkes. London,: Smith, Elder & Co.,. OCLC 3307790. 
• Gauthier, P.: Newman et Blondel ; tradition et développement du dogme, Paris, Le Cerf, 1988
• Hales, E.E.Y.: The Catholic Church in the modern world, Doubleday, 1958
• Hales, E.E.Y., 1954. Pio Nono; a study in European politics and religion in the nineteenth century, Doubleday, 1954
• Ilaria Biagioli, Alfonso Botti, Rocco Cerrato (ed.), Romolo Murri e i murrismi in Italia e in Europa cent'anni dopo, Urbino, QuattroVenti, 2005
• Izquierdo, C.: Blondel y la crisis modernista ; análisis de « Historia y dogma ». Pamplona, Ed. Univ. de Navarra, 1990
• Jodock, Darrell (ed.:) Catholicism contending with modernity, C.U.P., 2002
• Loome, Thomas Michael: Liberal Catholicism, Reform Catholicism, Modernism; a contribution to a new orientation in Modernist research.
• Mettepenningen, Jürgen (2010). Nouvelle théologie - new theology inheritor of modernism, precursor of Vatican II. London; New York: T & T Clark. ISBN 9780567299918. OCLC 676696271. Retrieved 2012-03-28. 

Cf. also this October 2010 review from The Tablet.

• O’Connell, Marvin: Critics on trial; an introduction to the Catholic Modernist crisis, Catholic University of America Press, Washington, D.C., 1994

Reviewed by Fr. John Parsons

• Poulat, É.: Histoire, dogme et critique dans la crise moderniste, Tournai, Casterman, 1979
• Sinke Guimarães, Atila: In the murky waters of Vatican II, MAETA, Metairie, 1997
• Virgoulay, R.: Blondel et le modernisme; la philosophie de l’action et les sciences religieuses, 1896–1913, Paris, Le Cerf, 1980

External links

• Bourmaud, Fr. Dominique, One Hundred Years of Modernism: A Genealogy of the Principles of the Second Vatican Council
• Garrigou-Lagrange, Réginald (2013). The Essence & Topicality of Thomism. ISBN 9781304416186.  — Fr. Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., explains why Thomism is the solution to the present crisis of Modernism in the Church.
• Providentissimus Deus, Leo XIII, 18 November 1893
• Lamentabili sane, Pius X, 3 July 1907
• Pascendi dominici gregis, Pius X, 8 September 1907
• International Catholic University: James Hitchcock, Introduction to Modernism: Essays with bibliography arranged by subjects, headed “Note: Most of the works dealing with Modernism are sympathetic to the Modernists, and students should maintain a critical stance towards the assigned readings.”
• Fr. Michael Morton, “Catholic Modernism (1896-1914)”
•  "Modernism". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 

History of Catholic theology Theologians Teachings Heresies General history History of the Catholic Church Early Christianity History of the Papacy Ecumenical Councils Timeline of the Catholic Church History of Christianity History of Christian theology Church beginnings Paul Clement of Rome First Epistle of Clement Didache Ignatius of Antioch Polycarp Epistle of Barnabas Shepherd of Hermas Aristides of Athens Justin Martyr Epistle to Diognetus Irenaeus Montanism Tertullian Origen Antipope Novatian Cyprian Constantine to Pope Gregory I Eusebius Athanasius of Alexandria Arianism Pelagianism Nestorianism Monophysitism Ephrem the Syrian Hilary of Poitiers Cyril of Jerusalem Basil of Caesarea Gregory Nazianzus Gregory of Nyssa Ambrose John Chrysostom Jerome Augustine of Hippo John Cassian Cyril of Alexandria Peter Chrysologus Pope Leo I Boethius Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite Pope Gregory I Early Middle Ages Isidore of Seville Maximus the Confessor Monothelitism Ecthesis Bede John of Damascus Iconoclasm Transubstantiation dispute Predestination disputes Paulinus II of Aquileia Alcuin Rabanus Maurus Paschasius Radbertus John Scotus Eriugena High Middle Ages Roscellinus Gregory of Narek Berengar of Tours Peter Damian Anselm of Canterbury Joachim of Fiore Peter Abelard Decretum Gratiani Bernard of Clairvaux Peter Lombard Anselm of Laon Hildegard of Bingen Hugh of Saint Victor Dominic de Guzmán Robert Grosseteste Francis of Assisi Anthony of Padua Beatrice of Nazareth Bonaventure Albertus Magnus Thomas Aquinas Thomism Roger Bacon Mysticism and reforms Ramon Llull Duns Scotus Dante Alighieri William of Ockham Richard Rolle John of Ruusbroec Catherine of Siena Brigit of Sweden Meister Eckhart Johannes Tauler Walter Hilton The Cloud of Unknowing Heinrich Seuse Geert Groote Devotio Moderna Julian of Norwich Thomas à Kempis Nicholas of Kues Marsilio Ficino Girolamo Savonarola Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Protestant Reformation Counter-Reformation Desiderius Erasmus Thomas Cajetan Thomas More John Fisher Johann Eck Francisco de Vitoria Ignatius of Loyola Francisco de Osuna John of Avila Francis Xavier Teresa of Ávila Luis de León John of the Cross Petrus Canisius Luis de Molina Molinism Robert Bellarmine Francisco Suárez Lawrence of Brindisi Francis de Sales Baroque Period to French Revolution Tommaso Campanella Pierre de Bérulle René Descartes Mary of Jesus of Ágreda Jean-Jacques Olier Louis Thomassin Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet François Fénelon Cornelius Jansen Jansenism Blaise Pascal Nicolas Malebranche Giambattista Vico Alphonsus Liguori Louis de Montfort Maria Gaetana Agnesi Alfonso Muzzarelli Johann Michael Sailer Clemens Maria Hofbauer 19th century Joseph Görres Felicité de Lamennais Luigi Taparelli Ignaz von Döllinger John Henry Newman Henri Lacordaire Jaime Balmes Gaetano Sanseverino Giovanni Maria Cornoldi Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler Giuseppe Pecci Joseph Hergenröther Tommaso Maria Zigliara Matthias Joseph Scheeben Modernism Léon Bloy Désiré-Joseph Mercier Friedrich von Hügel Vladimir Solovyov Marie-Joseph Lagrange George Tyrrell Maurice Blondel Thérèse of Lisieux 20th–21st century G. K. Chesterton Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange Joseph Maréchal Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Jacques Maritain Étienne Gilson Ronald Knox Dietrich von Hildebrand Gabriel Marcel Marie-Dominique Chenu Romano Guardini Edith Stein Fulton Sheen Henri de Lubac Gabriel Roschini Jean Guitton Josemaría Escrivá Adrienne von Speyr Karl Rahner Yves Congar Bernard Lonergan Emmanuel Mounier Jean Daniélou Hans Urs von Balthasar Edward Schillebeeckx Thomas Merton Raimondo Spiazzi Elizabeth Anscombe René Girard Pope Benedict XVI Johann Baptist Metz Jean Vanier Henri Nouwen Walter Kasper Michał Heller Jean-Luc Marion Tomáš Halík Catholicism portal Pope portal