Alfred Loisy
Encyclopedia
Alfred Firmin Loisy was a French
Roman Catholic priest, professor and theologian
who became the intellectual standard bearer for Biblical Modernism
in the Roman Catholic Church. He was a critic of traditional views of the biblical
creation, and argued that biblical criticism
could be applied to interpreting scripture. His theological positions brought him into conflict with the leading Catholics of his era, including Pope Leo XIII
and Pope Pius X
. In 1893, he was dismissed as a professor from the Institut Catholique de Paris
. His books were condemned by the Vatican
, and in 1908 he was excommunicated.
Loisy's most famous observation was that "Jesus came preaching the Kingdom, and what arrived was the Church" ("Jésus annonçait le Royaume et c'est l'Église qui est venue": Loisy 1902), and he is often taken to have said that with a note of regret (Loisy 1976: 166). But for all his clashes with the Roman Catholic hierarchy, Loisy did think that Jesus intended to form some sort of society or community. It was the aping of civil government ("comme celle d'un gouvernement établi"; Loisy 1902: 152) that he doubted Jesus intended.
in 1878/1879. 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. The 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 writings 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. Harnack believed that the essence of Christianity was the relationship between individual and God, making an organized church a largely unnecessary creation. Loisy disagreed with the idea that the organized church was unnecessary, but the nature of his disagreement brought him controversy. From 1901 to 1903 he wrote several works that would be condemned by the Church. These include La Religion d'Israel, Etudes évangéliques, L'Evangile et L'Eglise, Autour d'un petit livre, and Le quatrième Evangile. His 1908 Les Evangiles Synoptiques would cause his excommunication. In his works he argued against Harnack, trying to show that it was necessary and inevitable for the Catholic Church to form as it did. He also argued that God intended this and compared his own ideas on this to those of John Henry Newman.
Another controversial thesis of Loisy, developed on La Religion d'Israel, is the distinction between a pre-Moses period, when the Hebrews worshipped the god El, also known by the plural of this name, Elohim
, and a later stage, when Yahweh
gradually became the only deity of the Jews.
His assertions on Jesus went further than Newman and caused more controversy. He argued that Harnack had been partly correct that an organized church was created in a way unrelated to any plans by Jesus. Loisy argued that Jesus lacked a conscious understanding that he was consubstantial
with God the Father and therefore Jesus did not know how the Catholic Church would "transform". Loisy also indicated that many of the ideas on consubstantiality came from the Council of Nicaea and would have been unknown to Jesus or his first followers, who saw him largely in Jewish messianic terms.
In July 1907 the Holy Office (after Vatican II
renamed as Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
) issued a decree, signed by pope Pius X, entitled Lamentabili Sane Exitu
(or "A Lamentable Departure Indeed"), which formally condemned sixty-five modernist
or relativist propositions concerning the nature of the Church, revelation
, biblical exegesis, the sacraments, and the divinity of Christ
. This was followed by the encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis
(or "Feeding the Lord's Flock"), which characterized Modernism as the "synthesis of all heresies
."
The documents made Loisy realise that there was no hope for reconciliation of his views with the official doctrine of the Church. He made a comparative study of the papal documents to show the condemned propositions in his own writings. He also confirmed as true his earlier various New Testament interpretations, which he had previously formulated in conditional form.
In his journal he wrote:
His Catholic critics commented that his religious system had as its residue a great society, which he believed to be the continuation of the Church of which the past had been so glorious. For many, the attitude of Loisy and his followers was incomprehensible. What troubled Modernists was, How can the Church survive?, while for Pius X the question was, How can these men be priests?
Loisy was excommunicated vitandus
the following year, on March 7, 1908. After his excommunication he became a lay intellectual. He was appointed chair of history of religions in the Collège de France
. He served there until 1931. He died in 1940.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Roman Catholic priest, professor and theologian
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
who became the intellectual standard bearer for Biblical Modernism
Modernism (Roman Catholicism)
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...
in the Roman Catholic Church. He was a critic of traditional views of the biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
creation, and argued that biblical criticism
Textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
could be applied to interpreting scripture. His theological positions brought him into conflict with the leading Catholics of his era, including Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...
and Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X
Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...
. In 1893, he was dismissed as a professor from the Institut Catholique de Paris
Institut Catholique de Paris
The Institut Catholique de Paris, or the Catholic University of Paris, is a private university located in Paris, France. The institute was founded in 1875, under the name Université Catholique de Paris, by Maurice Le Sage d'Hauteroche d'Hulst....
. His books were condemned by the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
, and in 1908 he was excommunicated.
Loisy's most famous observation was that "Jesus came preaching the Kingdom, and what arrived was the Church" ("Jésus annonçait le Royaume et c'est l'Église qui est venue": Loisy 1902), and he is often taken to have said that with a note of regret (Loisy 1976: 166). But for all his clashes with the Roman Catholic hierarchy, Loisy did think that Jesus intended to form some sort of society or community. It was the aping of civil government ("comme celle d'un gouvernement établi"; Loisy 1902: 152) that he doubted Jesus intended.
Life and work
Born on February 28, 1857 at Ambrières, Loisy was educated within the Catholic system, from 1874-1879 at the Grand Séminaire de Châlons, and entered the Institut Catholique at ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1878/1879. 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. The Thesis stated that the Pentateuch was not the work of Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
, that the first five chapters of Genesis are not literal history, that the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
and the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
do not possess equal historical value, that there has been a development in the religious doctrine in scripture, and that the sacred writings 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. Harnack believed that the essence of Christianity was the relationship between individual and God, making an organized church a largely unnecessary creation. Loisy disagreed with the idea that the organized church was unnecessary, but the nature of his disagreement brought him controversy. From 1901 to 1903 he wrote several works that would be condemned by the Church. These include La Religion d'Israel, Etudes évangéliques, L'Evangile et L'Eglise, Autour d'un petit livre, and Le quatrième Evangile. His 1908 Les Evangiles Synoptiques would cause his excommunication. In his works he argued against Harnack, trying to show that it was necessary and inevitable for the Catholic Church to form as it did. He also argued that God intended this and compared his own ideas on this to those of John Henry Newman.
Another controversial thesis of Loisy, developed on La Religion d'Israel, is the distinction between a pre-Moses period, when the Hebrews worshipped the god El, also known by the plural of this name, Elohim
Elohim
Elohim is a grammatically singular or plural noun for "god" or "gods" in both modern and ancient Hebrew language. When used with singular verbs and adjectives elohim is usually singular, "god" or especially, the God. When used with plural verbs and adjectives elohim is usually plural, "gods" or...
, and a later stage, when Yahweh
Yahweh
Yahweh is the name of God in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jews and Christians.The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew , transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the original pronunciation is unknown...
gradually became the only deity of the Jews.
His assertions on Jesus went further than Newman and caused more controversy. He argued that Harnack had been partly correct that an organized church was created in a way unrelated to any plans by Jesus. Loisy argued that Jesus lacked a conscious understanding that he was consubstantial
Consubstantiality
Consubstantial is an adjective used in Latin Christian christology, coined by Tertullian in Against Hermogenes 44, used to translate the Greek term homoousios...
with God the Father and therefore Jesus did not know how the Catholic Church would "transform". Loisy also indicated that many of the ideas on consubstantiality came from the Council of Nicaea and would have been unknown to Jesus or his first followers, who saw him largely in Jewish messianic terms.
In July 1907 the Holy Office (after Vatican II
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
renamed as Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , previously known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition , and after 1904 called the Supreme...
) issued a decree, signed by pope Pius X, entitled Lamentabili Sane Exitu
Lamentabili Sane Exitu
Lamentabili Sane Exitu is a 1907 syllabus, prepared by the Holy Office and confirmed by Pope Pius X, which condemned errors in the exegesis of Holy Scripture and in the history and interpretation of dogma...
(or "A Lamentable Departure Indeed"), which formally condemned sixty-five modernist
Modernism (Roman Catholicism)
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...
or relativist propositions concerning the nature of the Church, revelation
Revelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
, biblical exegesis, the sacraments, and the divinity of Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
. This was followed by the encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis
Pascendi Dominici Gregis
Pascendi dominici gregis was a Papal encyclical letter promulgated by Pope Pius X on 8 September 1907.The pope condemned Modernism, and a whole range of other principles described as "evolutionary", which allowed change to Roman Catholic dogma...
(or "Feeding the Lord's Flock"), which characterized Modernism as the "synthesis of all heresies
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
."
The documents made Loisy realise that there was no hope for reconciliation of his views with the official doctrine of the Church. He made a comparative study of the papal documents to show the condemned propositions in his own writings. He also confirmed as true his earlier various New Testament interpretations, which he had previously formulated in conditional form.
In his journal he wrote:
His Catholic critics commented that his religious system had as its residue a great society, which he believed to be the continuation of the Church of which the past had been so glorious. For many, the attitude of Loisy and his followers was incomprehensible. What troubled Modernists was, How can the Church survive?, while for Pius X the question was, How can these men be priests?
Loisy was excommunicated vitandus
Vitandus
A vitandus excommunicate was someone affected by a rare and grave form of excommunication, in which the Church ordered, as a remedial measure, that the faithful were not to associate with him "except in the case of husband and wife, parents, children, servants, subjects", and in general unless...
the following year, on March 7, 1908. After his excommunication he became a lay intellectual. He was appointed chair of history of religions in the Collège de France
Collège de France
The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...
. He served there until 1931. He died in 1940.