LABANCA, BALDASSARRE. — Philosopher and historian of religions, born at Avignon on 17 Aug. 1829, died at Rome on 23 Jan. 1913. He first taught the history of philosophy at Padua, then (1886) the history of religions (1888) and the history of Christianity in Rome.
A prolific but superficial writer, he followed in philosophy a kind of mysticism, expounded in his major work in two volumes *Della dialettica libri quattro* (Florence 1874). He termed his method “inclusive” (conciliatory) and his philosophy “dialectical” (not Hegelian): “thesis” is being in its whole potentiality; “antithesis” is being itself in its parts; and “synthesis” is being in its actual whole. The positive content of intuition consists of “innumerable ideas,” which have as their centre one and absolute God, who is neither personal nor impersonal, but “superpersonal,” neither immanent nor transcendent (*Dialettica*, II, p. 194).
As a historian of Christianity, L. is a jumble of materials and rationalistic and heterodox tendencies: “The historian of religion has the duty to examine the various religious beliefs as so many religious phenomena, without allowing ecclesiastical dogmas or theological pronouncements to impose themselves upon his judgment” (*Ancora di alcune leggi sulla storia delle scienze*, in *Riv. di filosofia e scienze affini*, 2 [1901], p. 12 of the offprint). He also wrote *Il nostro Gesù Cristo nella letteratura contemporanea straniera ed italiana. Studio storico scientifico* (Turin 1903).
Other works by L.: *Intorno al vero e al falso spirito della filosofia contemporanea* (Naples 1877); *Del progresso della filosofia* (ibid. 1860); *Della filosofia italiana nel sec. XIX* (Chieti 1861); *Marsilio da Padova* (Padua 1882); *La religione per le università è un problema, non un assioma* (ibid. 1886); *Il cristianesimo primitivo* (Turin 1886); *La bancarotta né della scienza né della religione* (Milan 1895); *G. B. Vico e i suoi critici cattolici* (Naples 1898); *Gesù di Nazareth* (Rome 1910).