Réville, Jean

RÉVILLE, JEAN. - French Protestant theologian, b. 6 Nov. 1854 in Rotterdam, d. 5 May 1908 in Paris.

Son of Albert R., a Protestant pastor and learned scholar of the history of religions. He graduated in theology in Paris in 1886 with the thesis La Religion à Rome au temps des Sévères (Paris 1886), which is one of his most important works; in the same year he became a lecturer in ecclesiastical history at the Sorbonne. From 1894 to 1907 he also taught patristics at the Protestant theological faculty. From 1884 he edited the Revue de l'histoire des religions and, after his father's death (1907), held his father's chair at the Collège de France. He studied the Philonic doctrine of the Logos: Le Logos d'après Philon d'Alexandrie (Geneva 1877); La doctrine du Logos dans le VIᵉ Evangile et dans les oeuvres de Philon (Paris 1881); he traced the evolution of the episcopate from its origins down to the times of Ignatius of Antioch (Les origines de l'Episcopat, Paris 1894); he published a great number of articles on the history of early Christianity. An advanced rationalist like his father, an allegorist to the utmost, his extremist position is reflected also in his historical works.