Jansenism

About: Jansenism is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 189 publications have been published within this topic receiving 1397 citations. The topic is also known as: jansenisme & jansenists.

Der Jansenismus—eine „katholische Häresie"? Das Ringen um Gnade, Rechtfertigung und die Autorität Augustins in der frühen Neuzeit ed. by Dominik Burkard and Tanja Thanner (review)

Abstract: Der Jansenismus-eine "katholische Haresie"? Das Ringen um Gnade, Rechtfertigung und die Autoritat Augustins in der fruhen Neuzeit. Edited by Dominik Burkard and Tanja Thanner. [Reformationsgeschichtliche Studien und Texte, Band 159.] (Munster: Aschendorff Verlag. 2014. Pp. viii, 464. euro56.00. ISBN 9783-402-11583-1,)The book contains eighteen essays dedicated to the controversy on grace and justification in the early-modern period that were discussed in the symposium held in Wurzburg on May 12-14, 2011. The symposium examined Jansenism as a European phenomenon of various theological, historical, and political implications. Fourteen essays are in German, one is in French, and three are in English. The book includes an index of abbreviations and acronyms as well as an index of personal names.Free will is one of the oldest questions of history. In the history of Christianity, it is found mainly in the early-fifth-century controversy between St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) and Pelagius, and in its theological and ecclesiastical implications. Later the problem of divine grace and human freedom gave renewed rise to considerable theological debates. Finally, the question of justification, focused through the Reformation, acted as a catalyst. Between the emerging denominations in the wake of these debates also a struggle flared for the "heritage" and for the true hermeneutic of Augustine himself. The theological problems of grace led to violent intra-Catholic controversy that eventually culminated in the mid-seventeenth century in the conflict over tht Augustinus of Cornelius Jansen (1585-1638). Immediately after the publication of this work, which claimed to be the authentic interpretation of the Church Father, came the prohibition of the Augustinus published by the Roman Index of Prohibited Books. The papal bull Cum occasione (1653) condemned five propositions, taken from the Augustinus, as heretical. The explosive force of this act was enormous between theologians and seemed to condemn the theological position on grace of Augustine. The volume examines the complex, multifaceted phenomenon of Jansenism from the theological initial question and offers the analysis of the reception of Augustine's thought by main theologians of the modern period such as John Calvin and Martin Luther. The importance of Augustine's theological thought emerges in this well-documented and nuanced history of Jansenism.Cornelius P. Mayer analyzes the evolution of Augustine's thought until the drafting of the Confessiones. Two essays present Augustine's hermeneutic and the relationship among Luther, Calvin, and Augustine: Otto H. Pesch discusses the ambiguous critique made by Luther, and Karin Scheiber analyzes the main contact points and differences between Calvin and Augustine. Karlheinz Ruhstorfer presents the dispute "de auxiliis" from its origins to the dispute between the Jesuit Luis de Molina and the Dominican Domingo Banez (unfortunately the author ignores the Italian and French studies on this intriguing subject). …

Catholic particularity in seventeenth-century French writing. “Christianity is Strange”

Abstract: Catholic particularity in seventeenth-century French writing. "Christianity is Strange", by Richard Parish, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011, ix + 229 pp., £55.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-19-959666-9The course of Catholicism in seventeenth-century France is, in many respects, a paradoxical one. A time of marked growth in religious orders, often spearheaded by charismatic figures such as Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac, it was also a period during which the Church came under attack from free-thinkers and philosophers. It has been described as the century of saints but at the same time it could also be termed the century of conflict, with the internal divisions of Jansenism, Gallicanism, Quietism, and relations with the Huguenot minority. Richard Parish picks up on these contradictions in the subtitle to this succinct study of French spirituality, taken from Pascal, an interesting figure whose religious beliefs were both rigorously rational and intensely emotional. Parish's central thesis is that the strangeness, the almost alien quality of Christianity and its belief system, should neither be forgotten nor underestimated. It is through this perspective, he argues, that the broad landscape of seventeenth-century Catholic spirituality should be viewed, a suggestion that is both familiar and radical. In fact, Parish goes further than this and urges that it is only "through the disquieting prism of Pascal, through the linguistic aphasia of mystics and poets, or through the agonizing tensions" of different schools that belief in Providence may be satisfactorily realized and understood (209).One of the heroes of this spiritual survey is, quite rightly, Francois de Sales, bishop of Geneva whose ministry was spent in exile in France because of that city's Protestantism. The revolutionary nature of the prelate's teaching cannot be underestimated and Parish ably and engagingly analyses Francois's thought, which consists of "the creation of an attitude of discernment in the reader" (115). This lay-centred vision of holiness placed an onus on the individual to work out his, or particularly her, path to salvation, regardless of their social obligations or status. Above all, Salesian spirituality anchored individual inspiration to the institutional Church, a not inconsiderable feat, which ensured his canonization only four decades after his death, a speedy raising to the altars by early modern standards. Parish sees Bossuet and Pascal as sharing Francois's preoccupation with personal sanctification centred on the ordinary, rather than the pursuit of extraordinary spiritual phenomena.When it does come to mystical manifestations during the period, Parish offers some compelling, and surprising, glossing. …

El regalismo jansenista, los obispos ilustrados y San Carlos Borromeo, factores del desarrollo y configuración de los seminarios en el s. XVIII

Abstract: In the second half of the 18th century, the seminaries in Spain experienced a new configuration and development. Regalism, juridical jansenism, enlightened catolicism of the bishops and Saint Charles Borromeo were the most significant factors for this expansion and renewal. Jansenist regalism was a clear consecuence of civil autorities interference in the ecclesiastical formation. The enlightened catolicism of the bishops made them channel this jansenist interference into the creation of new seminaries and in the updating of ecclesiastical formation to suit the needs of the times. Finally, Saint Charles Borromeo served as a guide in the creation and the internal governement of these institutions.

L'erreur et son juge. Remarques sur les censures doctrinales à l'époque moderne by Bruno Neveu (review)

Abstract: L'erreur et son juge. Remarques sur les censures doctrinales a l'epoque moderne. By Bruno Neveu. Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici, Serie Studi XII. (Naples: Bibliopolis. 1993. Pp. 758. Lire 160.000 paperback.) In a yet-to-be-written historical survey of the concept of Magisterium in the Catholic Church an important chapter will be devoted to the issues related Jansenism. This is the indisputable conclusion of Professor Bruno Neveu's erudite monograph. His work is a progressive survey that approaches the question of magisterial pronouncements, more precisely the discernment of theological "error," from the perspective of Jansenism. In the background is an issue still familiar to most students of church history: the five propositions condemned by the bull Cum Occasione and their relationship with Augustinus, the book written by Cornelius Jansenius. Most probably the propositions came from theses defended by students of the faculty of Theology of Paris, who had chosen them for their ambiguous expression: they could have a good Augustinian sense, or they could be interpreted in a bad, unorthodox way. They offered, therefore, the matter for a brilliant exercise in theological dispute. It was the heretical sense that was noticed and eventually condemned in Rome by a special commission that prepared the dogmatic constitution Cum Occasione of Innocent X (1653) The document made a connection between the book and the propositions, but not an explicit one; this was established by a commission of French bishops who declared them excerpted from Augustinus. Eventually this association was declared by Alexander VII's Ad Sacram; he also demanded in his Regiminis Apostolici an inward acceptance of this fact. The Jansenists had two reasons to challenge these decisions. First, they maintained an orthodox sense of the propositions, based upon Augustinian theology; second, they denied the presence of the propositions in the incriminated book. In other terms, they suggested that the Roman decisions were flawed and even possibly wrong. That this question of authority was at least as important as the issue of grace has been perceived often by historians, but never has anybody tried to observe it from within, as it were, in bringing together all the elements of a very intricate issue. This Neveu accomplishes in a very meticulous and systematic way. His first chapter ("Vestigia") is a description of the traditional system of theological censures elaborated by universities. The second ("Antiquitas redux") shows how the development of positive theology, associated with religious controversy, brought forth a renewed interest in the writings of the Church Fathers and an absolutization of their authority. This happened, the author shows in the next chapter ("Ars censoria"), at a time when the technique of qualifying theological error was becoming very precise, even persnickety, as he exhibits in his examples. Now applied by the inquisitorial institutions, especially Roman (Chapter Four, "Pervigil argus") this procedure, all negative, it must be stressed, was the way the papacy intervened in dogmatic matters, thus pressing her teaching authority. …