SERTILLANGES, ANTONIN-GILBERT. — Dominican philosopher, theologian, and sacred orator, born in Clermont-Ferrand on 17 November 1863, died in Sallanches (Haute-Savoie) on 26 July 1948.
He entered the Dominican Order in 1883; after being promoted lecturer in theology (1890), he began teaching II. He was editorial secretary of the Revue thomiste; from 1900 to 1922 he taught moral philosophy at the Institut catholique and distinguished himself as one of France’s most celebrated orators. From 1918 he was a member of the Institute; after spending the year 1923 in Jerusalem, he taught (1924–28) social morality and eloquence to his confrères who had taken refuge in Holland, and subsequently to those of the Saulchoir convent. In 1940 he returned to the convent in Paris, where he devoted himself to preaching and to publishing his final works until his death.
Besides the numerous articles in the Revue de la jeunesse, Revue des jeunes, and many other journals, his principal works should be recalled: a) philosophical: Agnosticisme et anthropomorphisme (Paris 1908); St Thomas d'Aquin (2 vols., ibid. 1910); La philos. morale de st Thomas (ibid. 1916); Les grandes thèses de la philos. biomiste (ibid. 1928); Le christianisme et les philosophies (2 vols., ibid. 1939, 1941; Italian translation Brescia 1948); Lumières et périls du bergsonisme (ibid. 1943); L'idée de création et ses retentissements en philos. (ibid. 1945). b) theological: Les sources de la croyance en Dieu (ibid. 1903); Catéchisme des incroyants (ibid. 1930; Italian translation Turin 1937); Dieu ou rien (Paris 1933; Italian translation Turin 1940); L'Eglise (2 vols., Paris 1917); Le miracle de l'Eglise (ibid. 1933); Qu'est-ce que le catholicisme? (ibid. 1938); Dieu gouverne (ibid. 1942). c) ascetical and moral: Jésus (Paris 1903); La prière (ibid. 1917); La vie intellectuelle (ibid. 1921; Italian translation Rome 1925); La vie catholique (2 vols., Paris 1921; Italian translation Brescia 1938); Notre vie (2 vols., Paris 1926); Recueillement (ibid. 1935; Italian translation Brescia 1944); Affinités (Paris 1936; Italian translation Brescia 1944); Devoirs (Paris 1936; Italian translation Brescia 1945); d) oratorical: La politique chrétienne (Paris 1904); Socialisme et christianisme (ibid. 1905); La famille et l'Etat dans l'éducation (ibid. 1906); Féminisme et christianisme (ibid. 1908; Italian translation Turin 1940); L'Amour chrétien (Paris 1919; Italian translation Milan 1947); Le Sermon sur la Montagne (Paris 1916); L'orateur chrétien (ibid. 1930; Italian translation Turin 1928). e) aesthetic: Un pèlerinage artistique à Florence (Paris 1895; 1903; Liège 1931); Art et apologétique (Paris 1909); La Cathédrale: sa mission spirituelle, son esthétique, son décor, sa vie (Paris 1922); Prière et musique (ibid. 1936).
The fundamental idea of S. is that every science and every activity must be permeated by religion. While affirming that Grace transcends nature, and religion philosophy, he maintains that “without Christianity there would be no acceptable philosophy: all those that appeared after the Gospel, however useful when incorporated with it, would not by themselves have benefited our civilization” (Le Christianisme et les philosophies, I, preface). The Gospel “as an initial fact is foreign to every philosophy” (ibid., p. 8); nevertheless, Christian dogma “if it does not enunciate a philosophy, presupposes one.”
Besides presenting the philosophy of s. Tommaso in its fundamental theses and problems, expanded through new contributions, S. intended through his theological-apologetic works to bring the evangelical message to all contemporary minds. He therefore rethought, with originality of content and form, the traditional solutions in the light of contemporary achievements. Beyond verbal and conceptual determinisms, he sought to translate the Truth, enriched for us by the contribution of the centuries, “into the ideological, and not merely verbal, vocabulary used by the thinkers of our time.” This attempt to adapt to the demands of the modern mentality has at times appeared to certain more rigidly traditional theologians not entirely free from some hint of theological relativism. In reality, S. had directed his activity principally toward minds distant from the scholastic mentality.