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155 - Catholicism Between Luther and Voltaire: A New View of the Counter-Reformation |
Catholicism Between Luther and Voltaire: A New
View of the Counter-Reformation
By Jean Delumeau
Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1977. 294 pp. $19.50.
American readers unfamiliar with the "state-of-the-question" genre of French historians may expect from the title of this book a narrative history of the Catholic Church in the seventeenth and eighteenth
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158 - Catholicism Between Luther and Voltaire: A New View of the Counter-Reformation |
centuries. Such expectations will not be met, but if readers persevere with this collection of somewhat ill-matched essays, they will be rewarded with a vast display of accumulated knowledge, introduced to new methodologies, and challenged by insightful questions in the field of religious history of early modern France.
Jean Delumeau, former professor of modern history and director of the Modern History Research Centre, now professor at the Collége de France, is remarkably well equipped to offer this study, which first appeared in the Nouvelle Clio series. The series, prepared by historians for historians, attempts to outline the present state of knowledge of a particular period or problem, suggests directions for further research, and provides extensive bibliographies.
In his Foreword, Delumeau begins by stating a thesis: "The 'Christian Middle Ages,' as far as the (essentially rural) masses are concerned, is a legend which is being increasingly challenged. And if it is a legend, the two Reformations-Luther's and Rome's-constituted, despite mutual excommunication, two complementary aspects of one and the same process of Christianization whose impact and limits have still to be assessed."
To speak of the two reformations as the "Christianization" of a non-Christian Europe allows Jean Delumeau to probe the question which has been preoccupying French historians since the days of the great Gabriel Le Bras. Considering the enormous spiritual renewal of Christendom in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, how can one explain the swift and almost complete "dechristianization" which began with such corrosive forces in the eighteenth century and continues down to the present day?
The proposal is that a reexamination of the actual religious life and practice of the "average Christian" of the past may reveal that the "Christianization" of the Reformations was something like a veneer laid over customs and beliefs that were still a mixture of folklore, magic, and pagan cult. Further, the gap between conformity to church law and practice, maintained by societal sanctions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and true convictions and beliefs may have been larger than suspected. He concludes by asking: "Have we not for too long called 'Christianity' what was in effect a mixture of practices and doctrines with frequently but little connection with the gospel message? If this is so, can we still properly talk of 'dechristianization'?"
This is the problematic set forth in the final chapters of Part II. The context is provided by Part I, a straightforward summary of the "positive and innovative aspects, the richness and energy, of Tridentine Catholicism." Anyone interested in learning more about the topic will benefit from the succinct and generally accurate sketch of Delumeau, and they can follow any of the leads provided by the abundant references.
Any such overview which reaches into unresearched areas forces reliance on general reference works. And it is only when Delumeau has recourse to such sources that inaccuracies creep in.
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Part II, "Historians' Disputes and Directions of Research," benefits directly from Jean Delumeau's years of research and direction in the Annales school of French historiography. His introduction to the goals, methods, and fruits of religious sociology and collective psychology (methodologies employed by the Annalistes) represents the most significant value of the book, especially to scholars in church history. The non-French-reading American public should be grateful that such tools are being made available in translation. Although the references are to French research on French problems, the methods are just as applicable to research into the life and practice of Christianity of any place or period. The long treatment of Jansenism, for example, suggests interesting parallels with Calvinism, especially in its Puritan form.
There are some flaws in the book, but mainly they stem from difficulties and some downright errors in translation-which is quite clumsy in many places. The editing may also be faulted for such confusing errors in page and part numbers. Ambiguities like "purist" for what must be "jurist" may be a combination of translation and editing.
The book is provided with a stimulating if somewhat argumentative introduction by John Bossy. The extensive bibliography is, as might be expected, mainly composed of French studies. A second edition might benefit from the inclusion of more monographs in English.
In conclusion, we can be grateful to Westminster for making available to the American reading public this rich research and study tool in a field which has been too long neglected by American church historians.
F. Ellen Weaver
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana