MARIANO, RAFFAELE. — Writer on philosophy and the history of religions, born in Capua on 5 September 1840, died in Florence on 1 December 1912. He taught (1885–1904) Church history at the University of Naples.
An unsettled and eclectic spirit, improperly regarded as a Hegelian. At bottom, his is a mystical Platonism influenced by Hegel. Indeed, he admits the immobility and objectivity of the idea and the transcendence of God; he rejects historicism. Despite his hesitations between Catholicism and Protestantism and certain heterodox assertions in his historical work, M. defended the truth and permanence of Christianity and its positive value for a true national renewal (Il Risorgimento italiano, etc., Florence 1866, p. 72).
Principal works: Lassalle e il suo Eraclito, saggio di filosofia hegeliana (Florence 1865); Il Risorgimento italiano secondo i principi della filosofia della storia (ibid. 1866); Roma nel medioevo (Rome 1873); Cristianesimo, cattolicesimo e civiltà (Milan 1879); Ritorno a Kant e ai neo-kantiani (Naples 1887); Buddismo e cristianesimo (2nd ed., Rome 1896); Giudaismo, paganesimo e Impero romano (Florence 1901); La conversione del mondo pagano al cristianesimo (ibid. 1902); Il cristianesimo nei primi secoli (2 vols., ibid. 1902); Scritti vari (essays and articles; 11 vols., ibid. 1900 ff.). Vol. X contains the philosophical writings on Hegelianism. The work Gli evangeli sinottici: realtà o invenzione? (Naples 1893) is on the Index (decree of 14 July 1893) because, although it opposes Harnack and rationalist criticism, it is nevertheless excessively yielding and moreover claims to find contradictions and absurdities therein, which it then turns against the Church, whose foundation by Jesus Christ it denies.