Sertillanges, Antonin-Gilbert

SERTILLANGES, ANTONIN-GILBERT. - Dominican philosopher, theologian and sacred orator, b. at Clermont-Ferrand on 17 Nov. 1863, d. at Sallanches (Haute-Savoie) on 26 July 1948.

Having entered the Dominicans in 1883, he was promoted lector in theology (1890) and began teaching it. He was editorial secretary of the Revue thomiste; from 1900 to 1922 he taught moral philosophy at the Institut catholique and distinguished himself among the most celebrated orators of France. 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 confreres, refugees in Holland, and then to those of the Convent of Saulchoir. In 1940 he returned to the convent of Paris, where he devoted himself to preaching and to the publication of his last works, until his death.

Besides his numerous articles in the Revue de la jeunesse, Revue des jeunes, and in many other journals, the principal works to be remembered are: 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. thomiste (ibid. 1928); Le christianisme et les philosophies (2 vols., ibid. 1939, 1941; Ital. trans. 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; Ital. trans. Turin 1937); Dieu ou rien (Paris 1933; Ital. trans. 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) ascetico-moral: Jésus (Paris 1903); La prière (ibid. 1917); La vie intellectuelle (ibid. 1921; Ital. trans. Rome 1925); La vie catholique (2 vols., Paris 1921; Ital. trans. Brescia 1938); Notre vie (2 vols., Paris 1926); Recueillement (ibid. 1935; Ital. trans. Brescia 1944); Affinités (Paris 1936; Ital. trans. Brescia 1944); Devoirs (Paris 1936; Ital. trans. 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; Ital. trans. Turin 1940); L'Amour chrétien (Paris 1919; Ital. trans. Milan 1947); Le Sermon sur la Montagne (Paris 1916); L'orateur chrétien (ibid. 1930; Ital. trans. 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).

Sertillanges' fundamental idea is that every science and every activity must be permeated by religion. While affirming that Grace transcends nature, and religion philosophy, he holds that "without Christianity there would be no acceptable philosophy: all those that appeared after the Gospel, however useful if incorporated with it, would not by themselves have benefited our civilization" (Le Christianisme et les philosophies, I, proem). The Gospel "as an initial fact is foreign to every philosophy" (ibid., p. 8), yet Christian dogma "if it does not set forth a philosophy, nevertheless presupposes one."

Besides his exposition of the philosophy of St. Thomas, in its fundamental theses and problems, expanded with new contributions, Sertillanges intended by 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 at adaptation to the demands of the modern mentality has sometimes seemed to some more rigidly traditional theologians not to be free from some shadow of theological relativism. In reality Sertillanges had oriented his activity principally toward minds far removed from the scholastic mentality.

Reginaldo Omez