number of 1863 a critical analysis by Havet[1] who hailed Renan's work as a great achievement, and criticised only the inconsistencies by which he had endeavoured to soften down the radical character of his undertaking. Later on the Revue changed its attitude and sided with Renan's opponents. In the Protestant camp there was an even keener sense of distaste than in the Catholic for the sentimental gloss which Renan had spread over his work to make it attractive to the multitude by its iridescent colours. In four remarkable letters Athanase Coquerel the younger took the author to task for this. [2] From the standpoint of orthodox scholarship E. de Pressense condemned him;[3] and proceeded without loss of time to refute him in a large-scale Life of Jesus.[4] He was answered by Albert Reville,[5] who claims recognition for Renan's services to criticism.
In general, however, the rising French school of critical theology was disappointed in Renan. Their spokesman was Colani. "This is not the Christ of history, the Christ of the Synoptics," he writes in 1864 in the Revue de theologie, "but the Christ of the Fourth Gospel, though without His metaphysical halo, and painted over with a brush which has been dipped in the melancholy blue of modern poetry, in the rose of the eighteenth-century idyll, and in the grey of a moral philosophy which seems to be derived from La Rochefoucauld." "In expressing this opinion," he adds, "I believe I am speaking in the name of those who belong to what is known as the new Protestant theology, or the Strassburg school. We opened M. Renan's book with sympathetic interest; we closed it with deep disappointment."[6]
The Strassburg school had good cause to complain of Renan, for he had trampled their growing crops. They had just begun to arouse some interest, and slowly and surely to exercise an influence upon the whole spiritual life of France. Sainte-Beuve had called attention to the work of Reuss, Colani, Reville, and Scherer.
- ↑ Ernest Havet, Professeur au College de France, Jesus dans l'historie. Examen de la vie de Jesus par M. Renan. Extrait de la Revue des deux mondes. Pans, 1863. 71 pp.
- ↑ Zwei framosische Stimmen liber Renans Leben-Jesu, von Edmond Scherer und Athanase Coquerel, d.J. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis des franzosischen Protestantismus. Regensburg, 1864. (Two French utterances in regard to Renan's Life of Jesus, by Edmond Scherer and Athanase Coquerel the younger. A contribution to the understanding of French Protestantism.)
- ↑ E. de Pressense, L'Ecole critique et Jesus-Christ, a propos de la vie de Jesus de M Renan.
- ↑ E. de Pressense, Jesus-Christ, son temps, sa vie, son aeuvre. Paris, 1865. 684 pp. In general the plan of this work follows Renan's. He divides the Life of Jesus into three periods: i. The Time of Public Favour; ii. The Period of Conflict; iii. The Great Week. Death and Victory. By way of introduction there is a long essay on the supernatural which sets forth the supernaturalistic views of the author.
- ↑ La Vie de Jesus de Renan devant les orthodoxes et devant la critique. 1864.
- ↑ T. Colani, Pasteur, "Examen de la vie de Jesus de M. Renan," Revue de theologie. Issued separately, Strasbourg-Paris, 1864. 74 pp.
