Histoire du Christianisme des origines à nos jours Sous la direction de Jean- Marie Mayeur, Charles et Luce Pietri, André Vauchez, Marc Venard

Abstract

Histoire du Christianisme des origines a nos jours. Sous la direction de JeanMarie Mayeur, Charles et Luce Pietri,Andre Vauchez, Marc Venard. Tome IX: Lge de raison (1620-1750) sous la responsabilite de Marc Venard. (Paris: Desclee. 1997. Pp. 1216. 480 FE) LAge de raison (1620-1750), the ninth in a projected series of twelve tomes appearing under the general title Histoire du Christianisme, avoids strict historical narrative and presents instead a collection of well documented articles arranged along four broad thematic lines. Because of its institutional focus, L'Age de raison is mainly traditional in scope and it is the better for this. Those favoring esoteric investigations may not care for the book's organization or emphases, which are entirely in keeping with a survey of this type. However LAge de raison defies easy categorization because it follows the two preceding tomes surveying the Reformation era [t. 7, De la reforme a la Reformation (1450-1530) and t. 8,Le temps des confessions (1530-1620)],while also serving as the transitional volume to the revolutionary era (1750-1830) that is to be examined in the tenth volume of the series. Fortunately, contributors to the ninth tome include such seasoned scholars as Bernard Vogler of Strasbourg and Willem Frijhoff of Rotterdam, who have deliberately written in a straightforward descriptive manner that avoids polemics and builds upon the consensus of scholarly opinion. As a collaborative work, L'Age de raison primarily aims to synthesize. Each chapter contains extensive footnotes as well as selective bibliographies of mostly secondary sources in French. English titles, however, do not figure prominently, and the coverage of English history is less than satisfying. The volume's index also excludes subjects, thereby limiting its reference utility. In a volume that evaluates the entire Christian world, the paucity of reliable maps (only ten) is disappointing. On a positive note, the editor, Marc Venard, professor emeritus of modern history at the University of Paris and president of the Societe d'Histoire religieuse de la France, has assembled a readable, up-to-date survey of Christianity that covers the overlapping periods of Catholic Reformation and pre-Enlightenment. Professor Venard, who has contributed several pieces here, including a chapter on Christian culture and la morale (pp. 990-1033), has made use of nearly two dozen capable scholars, of whom all but six are French. Their emphasis is westcentral European. The majority of the chapters deal with Roman Catholicism. Protestantism is covered and the Eastern Churches receive some, though by no means sufficient, comment. Readers probably should not expect otherwise in a publication that is mainly the product of French scholarship. The only North American contributor is the University of Montreal's Professor Dominique Deslandres, who writes on Christianity in the New World. This chapter is lengthy but not out of place. It is, however, too ambitious, summarizing religious life in the different colonies (Spanish, Portuguese, French, English, Dutch), while also discussing Christian interactions with Native Americans and African slaves. Deslandres' description is included in Part III,Le Christianisme dans le monde, and therefore combined with two additional chapters: one of which is a brief description of Africa (examined by Philippe Denis of the University of Natal), the other a competent discussion of the propagation of the faith throughout the Far East and India. The latter is written by the Jesuit scholar Philippe Lecrivain, who offers a lengthy and conventional analysis of the Christian missionaries and their theological squabbling instead of focusing on the perplexing varieties of Asian Christianity. In a volume that seeks to cover almost every major development from the Counter-Reformation to the early stages of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, English readers will no doubt find L Age de raison puzzling as choice of title. …