Showing papers on "Jansenism published in 2015"

Convulsionary miracles and women in print culture in France, 1737-1747

Abstract: This thesis addresses the print culture of Jansenist Convulsionaries from 1737 to 1747. This radical Catholic group emerged as one of various factions during the religious quarrels first provoked by the Papal Bull Unigenitus issued by Clement XI in 1713. Taking a reception-focused approach, I investigate how representations of Convulsionaries were understood by their sophisticated viewers and attempt to shed light on an aspect of previously neglected eighteenth-century visual culture. Chapter One examines the expensive prints from pro-Jansenist Carre de Montgeron’s publication La Verite des Miracles. My research uncovers new and diverse interpretations of images by the academician and religious painter, Jean Restout (1692-1768), with particular reference to their medical, theological and political significance. These prints were employed as legitimate documentation for miraculous cures previously refuted by the authorities. By drawing on related medical and theological material, I will show that these prints served as prompts to varied discussion for informed viewers who called-upon vast bodies of knowledge. Chapter Two focuses on three prints and examines the representation of Convulsionary women and their unsettling religious practices. Each case study discusses the image’s context of production, its possible viewership and thus contemporary perceptions about the movement’s female members, exposing problematic readings of Convulsionary women. Throughout, this thesis also touches on the risks and challenges encountered by artists when depicting such a controversial religious group.

The mysteries of Blaise Pascal’s sutures

Abstract: Blaise Pascal was born on 19 June 1623 at Clermont-Ferrand (France). Blaise Pascal had two sisters, Jacqueline and Gilberte. He lost his mother when he was 3 years old and was exclusively educated by his father, Etienne Pascal, a cultivated tax collector. In 1631, a promotion for Etienne Pascal allowed the Pascal family to move to Paris (France). Quickly, the young Blaise Pascal showed some great abilities and found naturally his place in the Academy, ancestor of the French Academy of Sciences. When he was only 11 years old, Blaise Pascal wrote his first scientific book, the Traite des sons [1]. Due to the opposition of Etienne Pascal against Cardinal Richelieu’s economic policy, the Pascal family had to run away from Paris in 1638. Jacqueline Pascal, another child prodigy, helped the return to favor of his father, and in 1640, Etienne Pascal settled down in Rouen as superintendent of Normandy. Blaise Pascal continued to work on geometry and on his calculator finished in 1642. The most important event of their stay in Rouen was their conversion to Jansenism, a Christian theological movement emphasizing original sin and the necessity of the divine grace for predestinated persons. The Pascal family came back to Paris in 1648. On 19 September 1648, Blaise Pascal, also interested in physics, made his famous experiment on vacuum published in Recit de la grande experience de l’equilibre des liqueurs [2]. Etienne Pascal died on September 24, 1651. Due to their conversion, Blaise and Jacqueline Pascal became close to the Jansenists of Port-Royal-des-Champs. In 1654, he resolved several mathematical problems creating the bases of probability and the integral calculus. During the night between 23 and 24 November 1654, he experienced a mystical experience. Combined with retreats made in 1655 and 1656, Blaise Pascal asserted his religious beliefs: he was the author of a series of the 18 Lettres Provinciales [3]. In these letters, Blaise Pascal defended the Jansenist Antoine Arnauld from Port-Royaldes-Champs and criticized the laxity of Jesuits. His faith was strengthened by the miraculous recovery of one of his nieces on the 24 March 1656. Blaise Pascal worked on pedagogic, scientific, religious, and literary projects. For example, at the beginning of 1662, he managed one of the first public transportations ever invented. It was only in 1669, posthumously, that Les Pensees was published [4]. This masterpiece is considered as one of the most important texts of the French language today [1]. Blaise Pascal had poor health throughout his life. But, it was after his majority that his condition degraded. His sister Gilberte wrote: BFrom the age of 18, he would not have spent 1 day without pain^ [5]. A headache was the principal symptom of his disease [6]. More than 65 references were found concerning his illness and his death [7]. None of the proposed diagnoses is satisfactory. The objective of this work is to have a scientific review of this French genius’ life in order to give a more accurate diagnosis. M. Zanello (*) : E. Arnaud : F. Di Rocco Department of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Necker Children’s Hospital, 149 Rue de Sevres, 75015 Paris, France e-mail: marc.zanello@orange.fr

The Judge’s Lore? The Politico-Religious Concept of Metamorphosis in the Peripheries of Western Europe

Abstract: Under the reign of Louis XV, the southeastern part of France, especially the Perigord and the Auvergne, was driven by several wolf panics. The mysterious case of The Beast of Gevaudan attracted the greatest public interest, mediated by numerous pamphlets and newspapers.1 Even in the dawn of the enlightenment, some people were convinced that The Beast was a devilish man-slaughtering werewolf of immense strength. Between 1764 and 1767, the killing of more than 100 people was attributed to The Beast. Very soon, the French King took an active interest in the affair. At the beginning of the century, the region had been involved in the rebellion of the Camisards, which had been crushed by Louis XIV. The peasants still were thought to be secret Huguenots, who could start disturbances again. Thus, the Jansenist bishop of Mende interpreted the attacks of The Beast as signs of God’s wrath against the heathen peasants of the Gevaudan. At the same time, the King stationed a regiment of dragoons in the area. Allegedly, the soldiers should hunt The Beast, but the hidden purpose of this dragonard was to control and discipline the restless populace. With the final killing of the wolves, which were thought to constitute ‘The Beast’, the king’s Catholic authority was re-established.

De Lubac, Grace, and the Pure Nature Debate

Abstract: Henri de Lubac's doctrine of grace and nature emerged out of the pastoral and sacramental context of confession. Although recent critics have assumed a Thomist setting, a close reading shows that the doctrine is rooted in de Lubac's critical engagement with Augustinianism. In the form of Jansenism and drawing especially on Augustine's late, anti-Pelagian writings, this sensibility pervaded modern French theology. Notwithstanding its distorted conceptions of grace's mode of operation and of human nature, Jansenism provoked de Lubac into developing new understandings of the relation between belief and knowledge, and of theological anthropology. In advocating for the continuity of Augustine's theology, de Lubac made an important contribution to Augustine scholarship. His resulting doctrine of grace and nature, in which the person of Adam is central, has wider, abiding theological salience.