Leo XIII, Loisy, and the "Broad School": An Early Round of the Modernist Crisis
2003; The Catholic University of America Press; Volume: 89; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/cat.2003.0067
ISSN1534-0708
Autores Tópico(s)Religion and Society Interactions
ResumoMany Catholics at the beginning of the twentieth century feared that their Church was becoming increasingly anachronistic, and they therefore sought to update its teachings. Alfred Loisy (1857-1940) was one of the most important people engaged in this task. As the first step in his program of modernization, Loisy tried to bracket theological considerations and to claim an independence from the supervision of the hierarchy, at least in his activity as an historian of religion. When his specific historical conclusions challenged contemporary church teaching, however, the hierarchy re-asserted its authority, eventually condemning his efforts, as well as the efforts of many others, as "modernism" and excommunicating the most prominent modernists, including Loisy. For his part, Loisy welcomed his excommunication in 1908 and renounced any remaining allegiance to an institution that he had come to consider hopelessly outdated. These events constituted the "modernist crisis." 1
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