TIXERONT, JOSEPH. - Sulpician theologian, b. 19 March 1856 at Ennezat (Puy-de-Dôme), d. at Lyon on 3 Sept. 1925. A pupil of Duchesne (v.), he was ordained a priest in 1879. A long apprenticeship teaching the theological disciplines at the Seminary of Lyon (1884-98) prepared him for the university chair of patristics in that city (1898).
He acquired international fame with the Histoire des dogmes dans l'antiquité chrétienne (3 vols., Paris 1905-12), several times reprinted and translated into various languages within a few years. The author set out to fill the gap that was lamented in the Catholic field, as against the Protestant one, regarding a scientific and complete treatment of the development of Christian doctrinal thought in antiquity; he succeeded admirably, although today his work already seems somewhat dated. T., not in an apologetic tone, but with the attitude of an observer, with erudition and absolute respect for the truth, soberly sketches the evolution of religious beliefs, following the chronological order rather than the systematic and analytical one of the treatment of individual dogmas; the result is a complete picture of the life of the Church in a given historical period; perhaps, however, exegesis is more carefully handled than the in-depth treatment of certain questions.
He also wrote: Les origines de l'Église d'Édesse et la légende d'Abgar (Paris 1888); Vie mondaine et vie chrétienne à la fin du IIe siècle (Lyon 1906); La vie monastique en Palestine au Ve et VIe siècle (ibid. 1911); Le Sacrement de l'énitence dans l'antiquité chrétienne (Paris 1914); La démonstration de la prédication apostolique de st Irénée (ibid. 1916); Précis de patrologie (ibid. 1918); Mélanges de patrologie et d'histoire des dogmes (ibid. 1921); L'Ordre et les ordinations (ibid. 1924).
Bibliography4 works
Vito Zolini