RIVIÈRE, JEAN. - Theologian, b. at Montcabrier (near Albi) in 1878, d. there on 3 May 1946.
After graduating from the Institut catholique in Toulouse, he taught briefly at the Seminary of Albi before serving for 27 years as a professor in the Faculty of Theology at Strasbourg. He subjected to rigorous criticism the writings on the dogma of Redemption, offering clarifications and precision, rejecting tendentious interpretations (especially against the *Turmcl*), and attempting new syntheses, though not definitive ones: *Le dogme de la Redemption devant l'histoire* (Paris 1926); *Le dogme de la Redemption chez St Augustine* (ibid. 1930); *Le dogme de la Redemption après St Augustine* (ibid. 1930); *Le dogme de la Redemption au début du moyen âge* (ibid. 1933); *Le dogme de la Redemption. Etude théologique* (3rd ed., ibid. 1931); *Le dogme de la Redemption. Etudes critiques et documents* (Louvain 1931); *Le dogme de la Redemption dans la théologie contemporaine* (posthumous, ed. F. Cavallera and E. Lombard, Albi 1948), in which some observations and attitudes are subject to reservation. Important for the history of contemporary thought is the monograph *Le modernisme dans l'Eglise* (Paris 1929). In addition to the volume *Le problème de l'Eglise et de l'Etat au temps de Philippe le Bel* (Paris 1926) and other notable essays, he contributed to the *DThC* and various religious culture periodicals.