ANTOINE, PAUL-GABRIEL. – French theologian, born in Lunéville on 19 January 1678, died in Pont-à-Mousson on 22 January 1743. Having entered the Society of Jesus at a very young age, he was professor of philosophy and theology at the college of Pont-à-Mousson, of which he was later appointed rector. Subsequently, he was also instructor of the fathers of the third probation and superior of the professed house at Nancy.
In 1723 he published a Theologia universa speculativa et dogmatica ad usum theologiae candidaturum (numerous reprints), intended to combat Jansenist propositions, but somewhat indulgent toward the prevailing Gallicanism. This was followed in 1726 by the celebrated treatise: Theologia moralis universa complectens omnia morum praecepta et principia, decisions omnium casuum conscientiae, which went through many editions and was highly esteemed by St. Alfonso de' Liguori, although he found it extremely rigid. The Conventual Franciscan Filippo da Carbignano prepared several reprints of it (1750, 1757, 1760), with additions and appendices for the use of missionaries.
A. was also a good ascetical writer. He wrote: Lectures chrétiennes sous forme de méditations, Nancy 1736, later abridged as: Méditations pour tous les jours de l'année, there 1737; Les moyens d'acquérir la perfection chrétienne, there 1738; Démonstration de la vérité chrétienne et catholique, there 1739. In spirituality, his ideas are very close to those of Fr. de Caussade, whose anonymous work A. published: Instructions spirituelles sous forme de dialogues sur les divers états d'oraison, Perpignan 1741.