LAMINNE, JACQUES. - Theologian, b. in 1864 at Aerschot (Belgium), d. at Liège on 23 Oct. 1924. Having graduated with distinction in philosophy and theology at the Gregorian University, he taught philosophy at the Seminary of St-Trond and, in 1904, at the University of Louvain, where in 1906 he obtained the chair of Dogmatic Theology. In 1914 he was appointed vicar general of Liège and in 1919 consecrated auxiliary bishop to Msgr. Rutten.
He published two fine monographs: La Rédemption (Louvain 1911); Controversie sur les futurs contingents à l'Université de Louvain au XVe siècle (ibid. 1906). Having become interested in the problem of evolution, then so much debated, he wrote: Que nous enseigne le premier chapitre de la Genèse? (ibid. 1903); L'idée d'évolution chez la Augustin (ibid. 1908); La philosophie de l'inconnaissable, la théorie de l'Évolution, étude critique des « Premiers Principes » de H. Spencer (ibid. 1907); Evolution et causalité (ibid. 1931). In these works he appears as a convinced advocate of transformism. A theologian of wide philosophical learning and versed in the natural sciences, he was ahead of his time.