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Modernism and Catholicism1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Arthur C. McGiffert
Arthur C. McGiffert
Affiliation:
Union Theological Seminary
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Extract

In the instrument providing for the endowment of the series of lectures which bears his name Judge Dudley directed that the third lecture should be for “The Detecting and Convicting and Exposing the Idolatry of the Romish Church, their Tyranny, Usurpations, Damnable Heresies, Fatal Errors, Abominable Superstitions, and other Crying Wickednesses in their high places; and finally that the Church of Rome is that mystical Babylon, that man of sin, that apostate Church, spoken of in the New Testament.”

It is upon this topic that I am to speak this evening. The times have changed since the lectureship was founded in 1750. Many of the animosities of the fathers are no longer felt by us, and particularly in religious matters union has taken the place of division, sympathy of hostility, coöperation of rivalry. We are interested in other things. Our sense of proportion has changed. We are farther away from the days of persecution, and less nervous about many movements and institutions that our fathers dreaded unspeakably. The spirit of toleration has taken hold upon us all, and Protestants can think and speak kindly of men of other faiths, and can coöperate gladly and heartily with them as opportunity offers for the promotion of good ends dear to them all.

With this spirit I am myself in cordial sympathy, and it is as an historian, not as a polemic, that I shall treat the subject assigned me. I wish to consider as dispassionately as possible the great system that still remains essentially unchanged, in spite of all the vicissitudes that have overtaken the affairs of men since Judge Dudley made his will a hundred and fifty years ago.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , January 1910 , pp. 24 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1910

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References

2 Books and articles dealing with the movement are very numerous and are continually appearing. Among them the brief work by Holl, Modernismus, 1908, in the Religionsgeschiehtliche Volksbücher, and the longer work by Kübel, Geschichte der Katholischen Modernismus, 1909, are perhaps the best general accounts. Modernism, Lilley's: a Record and Review, 1908,Google Scholar is also useful, especially for its bibliography; and some of the writings of the Abbé Houtin areparticularly important for the growth of the movement in France (L'Américanisme, 1904;Google ScholarLa question biblique chez les catholiques de France au XIXe siècle 1902;Google ScholarLa question biblique au XXe siècle, 1906Google Scholar; La crise du clergé, 1907).Google Scholar For Italy the Lettere di un prete moderista (Rome, 1908) is instructive.

3 Compare for instance the numerous writings of the Abbé Loisy and some of the historical works of the Abbé Duchesne; also the brief summary in the Programme of Modernism, pp. 23 f.

4 Loisy, , Simples réflexions, pp. 47 f.,Google Scholar Quelques lettres, pp. 145 f.; Programme of Modernism, pp. 59 f.

5 Loisy, , The Gospel and the Church (English translation of L'évangile et l'église), pp. 166 f., 214 f.;Google ScholarLeRoy, , Dogme et critique, pp. 275 f., 355 f.Google Scholar It is worthy of remark that the philosophy of Henri Bergson has had large influence over the thinking of some of the French modernists, notably LeRoy.

6 Loisy, , Quelques lettres, pp. 45 f., 149 f.;Google ScholarLaberthonnière, , Essais de philosophie religieuse and Le réalisme chrétien et l'idéalisme grec, pp. 106 fGoogle Scholar.

7 Loisy, , Autour d'un petit livre, pp. 195 f.,Google Scholar Simples réflexions, pp. 61, 159; LeRoy, , Dogme et critique, pp. 63 f.;Google ScholarLaberthonnière, Le réalisme chrétien, pp. 104 f.;Google Scholar Programme of Modernism, pp. 92 f.

8 Loisy, , Autour d'un petit livre, p. 200;Google ScholarLeRoy, , l. c. pp. 25 f.;Google ScholarLaberthonnière, , Essais de philosophic religieuse, pp. 272 fGoogle Scholar.

9 Loisy, , l. c. p. 10;Google Scholar Programme of Modernism, p. 110; Lendemains d'encyclique, p. 49.

10 LeRoy, , l. c. p. 355.Google Scholar

11 Programme of Modernism, pp. 110 f.; Tyrrell, , External Religion, pp. 148 fGoogle Scholar.

12 LeRoy, , l. c. pp. 133 f.Google Scholar

13 Loisy, , The Gospel and the Church, pp. 59, 209 f.,Google Scholar Simples réflexions, p. 124; Tyrrell, , Medievalism, p. 74;Google Scholar Williams: Newman, Pascal, Loisy, and the Catholic Church, pp. 233 f.

14 Loisy, , Quelques lettres, pp. 140 f.;Google Scholar Programme of Modernism; Lendemains d'encyclique; and the numerous passages quoted below from Tyrrell's writings.

15 Since this lecture was delivered, Father Tyrrell has died, to the great sorrow of a large circle of friends and admirers, Protestant as well as Catholic.

16 Cf. Loisy, , The Gospel and the Church, pp. 175 f.;Google Scholar and Williams, , l. c. pp. 224 f., 290, 294, 304 fGoogle Scholar.

17 Quoted by Tyrrell, , Medievalism, pp. 4, 7, 14, 15Google Scholar.

18 See also Loisy, , The Gospel and the Church, p. 209;Google Scholar and Williams: Newman, Pascal, Loisy, and the Catholic Church, pp. 296 f.

19 Loisy, , Autour d'un petit livre, pp. 205 f.Google Scholar

20 Williams, , l. c. p. 297.Google Scholar