LABANCA, BALDASSARRE. - Philosopher and historian of religions, b. at Avignon on 17 Aug. 1829, d. at Rome on 23 Jan. 1913. He first taught history of philosophy at Padua, then (1886) history of religions and (1888) history of Christianity at Rome.
A prolific but superficial writer, in philosophy he followed a kind of mysticism, set out in his major work in two volumes Della dialettica libri quattro (Florence 1874). He calls his method "inclusive" (conciliatory) and his philosophy (not Hegelian) dialectic ("thesis" is being in its whole potentiality; "antithesis" is being itself in its parts, and "synthesis" is being in its whole actuality). The positive content of the infinite is constituted by "innumerable ideas," which have as their center 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 compiler of materials and of rationalistic and heterodox tendencies: "The religious historian has the obligation to gather the various religious beliefs, as so many religious phenomena, not allowing himself to be imposed upon, in appraising them, by churchly dogmas or by theological pronouncements" (Ancora di alcune leggi sulla storia delle scienze, in Riv. di filosofia e scienze affini, 2 [1901], p. 12 of the offprint). And his Gesù Cristo nella letteratura contemporanea straniera ed italiana. Studio storico scientifico (Turin 1903) is a cento.
Other works of L.: Intorno al vero e al falso spirito della filosofia contemporanea (Naples 1857); 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 ussion (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).
Bibliography2 works
Michele Federico Sciacca