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Malheur devenu bénédiction. Un siècle de modernisme

2006; Université catholique de Louvain; Volume: 101; Issue: 3-4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1484/j.rhe.3.132

2294-1088

Jürgen Mettepenningen,

Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis

Hundred years ago the Modernist crisis was condemned by Pope Pius X in his encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis. In this encyclical Modernism was described as the collection of all heresies. In the present article the author first considers the different elements of the background of the crisis: the development of Neo-Thomism, the secularisation of science, and the way Protestant scientists did their research independently of any magisterium. Then, the content of Modernism and its representatives are considered. Following that, the author studies the two central fields of the Modernist Crisis: exegesis and systematic theology. In the reaction of Rome the danger of Modernism was countered by different documents, all characterized by Neo-Thomism. The latter became the intellectual party line of the Church. The author concludes by showing the importance of the Modernist crisis. The aim of Modernism appeared again in the 1930’s and 1940’s (the ‘nouvelle théologie’) and was accepted by the Church during Vatican II. So, like É. Fouilloux mentioned, Modernism was the intellectual matrix of Catholic thought during the previous century.