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Étienne Gilson's Early Social and Political Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

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Richard Fafara*
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Abstract

The recent resurrection and rediscovery of Gilson's early political writings broaden the traditional view of Gilson by allowing us to see him as a serious, engaged, political thinker. This essay traces the background of Gilson's early political thought, the beginnings of a dramatic change both in Gilson's activity and writings in the late 1920s, possible reasons for that change, and focuses on Gilson's Pour un ordre catholique (For the Establishment of a Catholic Order). This emblematic work of Gilson's early political thought, which is a practical application of his Christian philosophy, remains relevant to addressing serious religious and political issues confronting Catholics today.

Keywords

Éienne GilsonCatholic Political ThoughtSeptPour un ordre catholique‘Woke’ Ideology
Type
Original Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 103 , Issue 1103 , January 2022 , pp. 36 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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References

1 More than 115 texts, with the original pagination shown in the margins, have been collected in Gilson, Étienne, Oeuvres complètes I, Un philosophe dans la cité 1908-1943, ed. Michel, Florian, hereafter abbreviated as O.C., I (Paris: J. Vrin, 2019)Google Scholar. All translations of these and other French texts in this article are the author's. See also Michel, Florian, Étienne Gilson, une biographie intellectuelle et politique (Paris: J. Vrin, 2018)Google Scholar and Thierry-Dominique Humbrecht, O.P., ‘Étienne Gilson et la politique’, Revue thomiste 114, 2 (2014), pp. 227-287Google Scholar. Due to the inaccessibility of Gilson's early articles and speeches, scholars such as Desmond FitzGerald considered Gilson's political activity to have begun late in 1944 with the liberation of Paris; see FitzGerald, ‘Maritain and Gilson on the Challenge of Political Democracy’, Reassessing the Liberal State: Reading Maritain's Man and the State, ed. Fuller, Timothy & Hittinger, John P. (Washington, D.C.: American Maritain Association: Distributed by Catholic University of America Press, 2001), pp. 61, 63.Google Scholar

2 Williams, Rowan, ‘Atlantic Intellectual: The Life of an Extraordinary French Scholar’, The Times Literary Supplement, January 17, 2020. pp. 34-35Google Scholar.

3 Vignaux, Paul, ‘Étienne Gilson’, Revue de métaphysique et de morale, 84 (1979), p. 291Google Scholar.

4 Gilson, Étienne, Pour un ordre catholique (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1934)Google Scholar, reprinted in Gilson, O.C., I, and the re-edited version of Thierry-Dominique Humbrecht, O.P. (Paris: Parole et Silence, 2013).

5 GlobalSecurity, ‘1871-1914 - Third Republic and the Catholic Church’ https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/fr-religion-3rd-republic.htm (accessed March 13, 2021).

6 The Petit Séminaire de Notre-Dame-des-Champs was closed in 1904 as a result of the anti-congregationist laws preventing religious congregations from teaching. See Gilson, Étienne, ‘Discours de M. Étienne Gilson, Notre-Dame-des-Champs’, Association fraternelle des anciens élèves de Notre-Dame-des-Champs, (Paris: Louis de Soye, 1934), pp. 16-21Google Scholar, reprinted in Gilson, O. C., I, pp. 293-299, at p. 293, n.1.

7 ‘Brought up in the Catholic faith, I profess it explicitly’ (Gilson, Étienne, ‘Lettre à l’éditeur, Pour travailler tranquille’, La vie catholique, Paris, Nov. 1, 1924Google Scholar, reprinted in Gilson, O. C., I, p. 395). Fr. de Lubac characterized Gilson's faith as ‘very strong and simple’ and appreciated his ‘open and forthright acknowledgement of his Catholicism’ (Laurence K. Shook, Notes from his visit with Fr. de Lubac at Les Fontaines on May 11, 1975, University of St Michael's College Archives, Toronto, abbreviated SMCA). See, Michel, Étienne Gilson, p. 17.

8 Gilson, Étienne, The Philosopher and Theology, trans. Gilson, Cécile (New York: Random House, 1962), p. 56Google Scholar and Letter of Étienne Gilson to P. Lucien Laberthonnière, April 12, 1906, in Michel, Étienne Gilson, pp. 325-326. This is the earliest document by Gilson found addressed to someone outside of his family or school circles.

9 Gilson, Étienne, ‘Compte rendu de deux ouvrages d'Alfred Loisy’, Revue philosophique de la France et de l’étranger 88, July-December 1919, pp. 129-131Google Scholar, reprinted in Gilson, O.C. I, pp. 757-760; see Shook, Laurence K., Étienne Gilson (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1984), p. 89Google Scholar.

10 Shook, Étienne Gilson, pp. 32, 66-67, 115.

11 Gilson, The Philosopher and Theology, pp. 56-57.

12 Ibid., pp. 58-59; Michel, Étienne Gilson, pp. 15-16; Laberthonnière, Lucien, Autour de ‘l'Action Française’ (Paris: Bloud, 1911)Google Scholar and his Positivisme et Catholicisme: À propos de l'Action Française (Paris: Bloud, 1911)Google Scholar. See Étienne Gilson, ‘En Marge de l ‘Action Française, Sept, 71, July 5, 1935, p. 4, reprinted in Gilson, O.C. I, pp. 625-631.

13 Gilson, The Philosopher and Theology, p. 57. The measures taken under Pope Pius X against the modernists such as Loisy and Laberthonnière along with the condemnation of Action Française almost caused Gilson to leave ‘the Church (but from the faith, not for a second)’ (Letter of Étienne Gilson to Henri Gouhier, January 30, 1962, Revue thomiste, 94, 3, p. 473). See Shook, Étienne Gilson, pp. 66-67.

14 Shook, Étienne Gilson, p. 185. Three years earlier, Gilson had encouraged Gouhier to do a series of articles for a literary and artistic newspaper: ‘I do not see either why you should not accept writing serials for Les Nouvelles littéraires by desorbonnizing French philosophy, which is an urgent task. If you have no objection in principle against newspapers (I think we have a duty to be journalists in 1926, when we are asked to be), I see no reason why you should refuse’ (Letter of Étienne Gilson to Henri Gouier, November 11, 1926, Archives of Mme. Marie-Louise Gouhier).

15 Gilson, Étienne, ‘Autour de Benda, La mare aux clercs’, L'Européen, Paris, May 29, 1929, p. 4Google Scholar, reprinted in Gilson, O.C. I, pp. 431-435.

16 Kimball, Roger, ‘The Treason of the Intellectuals & “The Undoing of Thought”’, The New Criterion, Vol. 11, No. 4, December, 1992 https://newcriterion.com/issues/1992/12/the-treason-of-the-intellectuals-ldquothe-undoing-of-thoughtrdquo (accessed March 20, 2021).Google Scholar

17 Gilson, Étienne, ‘Vues prises de Marburg’, L'Européen, Paris, June 19, 1929, pp. 1-2Google Scholar, reprinted in Gilson, O.C., I, pp. 435-440.

18 Pour le bien commun, les responsabilités du Chrétien et le moment présent (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer et Cie, avril 1934)Google Scholar. Florian Michel, ‘Introduction’, Gilson, O.C., 1, pp. 12-13. Michel sees Gilson's signing of the second petition in 1934 and the launching of the Catholic weekly review Sept that same month as a ‘break’ in Gilson's activities and ‘the debut of his intellectual engagement in the affairs of the city’ (Michel, Étienne Gilson, pp. 94-95). Fr. Humbrecht (‘Étienne Gilson et la politique’, p. 243) agrees. One may quibble as to when exactly Gilson became politically active, but it is clear that during the early to mid-1930s Gilson as a professor at the Collège de France, newspaper man, editorial writer, and engaged ecclesiastical and socio-political figure fully assumed his status as a Catholic intellectual who, as he characterized it in 1936, placed his ‘intelligence in the service of Christ the King’. See Gilson, Étienne, ‘L'intelligence au service du Christ-Roi’, La vie intellectuelle, 41, pp. 181-203Google Scholar; ‘The intelligence in the service of Christ the King’, Christianity and Philosophy, Eng. Tr. McDonald, R. M., C.S.B. (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1939), pp. 103-125Google Scholar.

19 Shook, Étienne Gilson, pp. 212-213; Gilson, O. C., I, pp. 209-292. These important lectures, unique for their political purpose and very successful format, constituted Gilson's first draft of Les Métamorphoses de la Cité de Dieu (Paris: J. Vrin and Louvain: Presses Universitaires de Louvain, 1952)Google Scholar.

20 Gilson, O. C., I, p. 292. On October 6, 1933, for a possible course at the Angelicum in Rome, Gilson suggested the title ‘Christian Philosophy and Religious Unity of the Earth’ or ‘Christian Philosophy as the Philosophy of Society’. Gilson, Etienne and Maritain, Jacques, Correspondance 1923-1971: Deux approches de l'être, ed. Prouvost, Géry (Paris: J. Vrin, 1991), pp. 104, 107Google Scholar.

21 Thieulloy, Guillaume de, Le chevalier de l'absolu: Jacques Maritain entre mystique et politique (Paris: Gallimard, 2005), p. 50Google Scholar.

22 Humbrecht, ‘Étienne Gilson et la politique’, p. 270.

23 Letter of Étienne Gilson to Fr. McCorkell, November 21, 1927, SMCA.

24 Shook, Étienne Gilson, p. 216.

25 Michel, Étienne Gilson, p. 13; Gilson, Étienne, ‘The Layman and Society’, New Blackfriars, 16, 182, Oxford, May 1935, p. 377CrossRefGoogle Scholar, reprinted in Gilson, O. C., I, pp. 597-98.

26 Gilson, Étienne, ‘La spécificité de la philosophie d'après August Comte, Congrès des Sociétés américaine, anglaise, belge, italienne et de la Société Française de Philosophie (Paris: 1921), pp. 382-386Google Scholar; Dalbiez, R., ‘Souvenir d'un Congrès de Philosophie’, La vie intellectuelle, 9 (1929), pp. 1015-1016Google Scholar.

27 Shook, Étienne Gilson, pp. 216-217, 221.

28 Michel, Étienne Gilson, p. 214.

29 Editorial of Sept, March 14, 1934 cited by T. Cavalin, ‘Sept’, in Julliard, J., Winock, M., Dictionnaire des intellectuels français. Les personnes, les lieux, les moments (Paris: Seuil, 1996, 2002)Google Scholar.

30 Extracts from P. Pierre Boisselot, ‘Notes sur l'histoire du Cerf’, 1943, Cahier II, pp. 83-87, ‘Fonds Boisselot, Archives de la Province Dominicaine de France (Paris)’, cited in Michel, Étienne Gilson, pp. 341-343.

31 Michel, Étienne Gilson, p. 95.

32 See Sudda, M. Della, ‘La suppression de l'hebdomadaire dominicain Sept. Immixtion du Vatican dans les affaires françaises (1936-1937)’, Vingtième Siècle. Revue d'histoire 104, 4 (209), pp. 29-44CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

33 Gilson, Pour un ordre catholique (henceforth double pagination refers to two editions of this work: the first to the original edition (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1934) as reprinted in Gilson, O.C., I / the second to Fr. Hembrecht's edition published in 2013.

34 Letter of Étienne Gilson to Marie-Dominique Chenu, May 6, 1934, Murphy, Francesca A. ‘Correspondance entre Marie-Dominique Chenu et Étienne Gilson. Un choix de lettres (1923-1969)’, Revue thomiste 105 (2005), pp. 35-36Google Scholar, Gilson & Maritain, Correspondance, p. 117, note.

35 Gilson, Pour un ordre catholique, pp. 71-72, 58/pp. 88-89, 69.

36 Ibid., p. 29/pp. 28-29. Some directors of the journal feared that Gilson's use of the term ordre catholique and focus on institutions could be interpreted as fostering a caste system and even ‘ghettos’ cut off from the rest of the world. For this reason, they preferred Maritain. See Aline Coutrot, ‘Sept’: un journal, un combat (mars 1934-aout 1937), Preface de René Rémond (Paris: Cana, 1982), p. 76; Doering, Bernard, Jacques Martain and the French Catholic Intellectuals (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983), p. 79Google Scholar. Although Gilson addressed this fear in one of his articles (‘Ordre catholique et unité nationale’, Sept, January 18, 1935, p. 3, reprinted in Gilson, O.C., I, pp. 569-572; see Michel, Étienne Gilson, p. 222), he ceased using the term ordre catholique and afterwards used the term chrétiente (Christendom).

37 Gilson, Pour un ordre catholique, pp. 28-29/p. 29.

38 Ibid., pp. 51-52/pp. 59-60.

39 Ibid., p. 73, 52-53/pp. 90, 61-62.

40 Ibid., pp. 31-32/pp. 32-34.

41 Ibid., pp. 31-32/p. 33.

42 Ibid., pp. 41-42/pp. 45-46.

43 Ibid., pp. 32, 42-43/pp. 47, 34.

44 Ibid., pp. 33, 48-49/pp. 36, 54-55.

45 Ibid., pp. 73-76/pp. 91-96.

46 Ibid., p. 61/p. 74.

47 Ibid., p. 62/pp. 74-75. ‘From the first century down to the 17th, scholastic philosophy and theology has constantly been the basis of all French teachings in the universities and schools. Consequently, it is easy to see how the French mind had been modeled by that idea of a universal society which is based on a universal truth, and on the acceptance of the universal truth. […] In other words, the systematic force of truth is the unifying power of society and is the unit of society itself’ (‘Christian Social Philosophy’, Toronto, October-December 1933, p. 45, SMCA, reprinted in Gilson, O.C., I, p. 278).

48 Ibid., pp. 63, 126, 44 /pp. 76, 169, 49.

49 Ibid., pp. 76-77/p. 63.

50 Ibid., p. 80/p. 65.

51 Ibid., p. 66/pp. 81-82.

52 Ibid., p. 105/pp. 138-139.

53 Ibid., pp. 103-104/p. 136.

54 Ibid., p. 118/p. 157.

55 Ibid., pp. 107, 124/pp. 141, 166. Historically, Gilson's own work bore out the truth of this recommendation: ‘[I]n spite of his unabashed Catholic loyalties, his work received a wider recognition in non-Catholic academic circles than the work of any other 20th-century Catholic intellectual’ (Stanley L. Jaki, ‘Introduction’, Gilson, Étienne, Methodical Realism: A Handbook for Beginning Realists, trans. Trower, Philip (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1990), p. 11)Google Scholar.

56 Gilson, Pour un ordre catholique, pp. 26, 34, 60/pp. 24, 36, 72.

57 Ibid., pp. 129-130/p. 174.

58 Ibid., p. 61/p. 73.

59 Ibid., pp. 82, 79-80, 85-88/pp. 136, 100-101, 108-114.

60 Ibid., pp. 93, 120-121/pp. 121-122, 161.

61 Coutrot, ‘Sept’: un journal, un combat, p. 72.

62 Letter of P. Pierre Boisselot to Étienne Gilson, May 5, 1934 cited in Michel, Étienne Gilson, p. 224.

63 Letter of Marc Bloch to Lucien Febvre, February 11, 1935, Correspodance Marc Bloch—Lucien Febvre (Paris: Fayard, 2003), 2, p. 209.

64 Ibid., p. 261, Letter of Lucien Febvre to Marc Bloch, June 24, 1935.

65 L'Action Française, May 26, 1935.

66 E. Mounier, ‘Étienne Gilson: Pour un ordre catholique’, Esprit, March 1935, pp. 959-964.

67 Letter of Paul Claudel to Étienne Gilson, July 24, 1934, SMCA.

68 Letter of Jacques Maritain to Étienne Gilson, January 4, 1935, Gilson & Maritain, Correspondance, pp. 122-123; Michel, ‘Introduction’, Gilson, O.C., I, pp. 15-16.

69 Les Carnets du Cardinal Alfred Baudrillart, 1932-1935 (Paris: Cerf, 2003), pp. 1079-1080Google Scholar.

70 Letter of Étienne Gilson to Fr. Gerald Phelan, March 3, 1935, SMCA.

71 Étienne Gilson, ‘Le culte de l'incompétence’. Sept, no 21, July 21, 1934, p. 2, reprinted in Gilson, Pour un ordre catholique, pp. 94-97/pp. 122-126; ‘Dossier des réactions dans Sept: Le ‘culte de l'incompétence,’ avec les réponses de Gilson’, Ibid./pp. 183-212; Boisselot, ‘Notes sur l'histoire du Cerf ’, cited in Michel, Étienne Gilson, p. 342; Letter of Msgr. Suhard to P. Bernadot, August 14, 1934, cited in Michel, Étienne Gilson, p. 226.

72 Étienne Gilson, ‘Superstition de diplômes’, Sept, August 18, 1934, p. 2, reprinted in Gilson, O.C., I, pp. 531-533. In his retraction, Gilson wished to explain, not justify, how psychologically he came to use the original title of his article. He had something in mind for his article that he decided not to use; his mistake was not changing or eliminating at the same time the title which alone could make intelligible, and, if not justify, at least excuse it. Then Gilson recounted a story about the superior of a house of ecclesiastical teaching who met with two young professors back from Rome where they were awarded their diplomas. One came back as a Doctor in Canon Law, the other as a Doctor of Theology. ‘How were they used? The Doctor of Theology was named Professor of Canon Law, and the Professor of Theology was named Professor of Canon Law’ (ibid., p. 531).

73 ‘Une Déclaration de Msgr. Richaud’, Sept, July 17, 1936; Michel, Étienne Gilson, p. 227.

74 Michel, Étienne Gilson, pp. 227-228.

75 At the same time, Gilson maintained that St. Thomas’ doctrine was not the only viable human source of philosophical knowledge and true theology. For Jean Lacroix's reservations regarding Gilson's being guilty of a Thomistic ‘exclusivism’ and references to Gilson's works and correspondence clearly showing that was never the case, see Michel, Étienne Gilson, pp. 264-265.

76 Gilson, Methodical Realism.

77 Trans. A.H.C. Downes (New York: Scribners, 1936).

78 Ibid., pp. 12, 37, 40. For Gilson's growth in understanding Christian philosophy, see Maurer, Armand, ‘Translator's Introduction’, Étienne Gilson, Christian Philosophy (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1993), pp. xiv–xxGoogle Scholar.

79 Étienne Gilson, ‘La démocratie en danger’, Sept, no. 2, March 10, 1934, p. 3, reprinted in Étienne Gilson, O. C., I, p. 480.

80 Gilson, Etienne, ‘L'humanisme de Saint Thomas d'Aquin’, Atti del V Congresso Internazionale di filosofia Napoli 5-9 maggio 1924 (Napoli: Perrella, 1925), pp. 976-989Google Scholar; Letter of Étienne Gilson to Fr. de Lubac, December 17, 1961, Gilson, Étienne & Lubac, Henri de, , S.J., Lettres de Monsieur Étienne Gilson au Père de Lubac et commentées par celui-ci (Paris: Cerf, 1986), pp. 45-46Google Scholar. Fr. de Lubac's classic work, Surnaturel, can be seen as a sequel to Gilson's defense of Christian philosophy.

81 Étienne Gilson, ‘La tradition Française et la Chrétienté’, Virgile, I, 1931, pp. 53-87, reprinted in Gilson, O.C., I, pp. 169-188, at p. 180. See Humbrecht, ‘Étienne Gilson et la politique’, pp. 278-282.

82 Étienne Gilson, ‘La Démocratie en danger’, Sept, no. 2, March 10, 1934, p. 3, reprinted in Gilson, O.C., I, pp. 479-481, at p. 480.

83 Smith, Gregory A., ‘Just one-third of U.S. Catholics agree with their church that Eucharist is body, blood of Christ’, Fact Tank, Pew Research Center, August 2, 2019 https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/05/transubstantiation-eucharist-u-s-catholics/ (accessed April 20, 2021)Google Scholar.

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85 Pew Research Center, ‘In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace’, October 17, 2019 https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/ (accessed April 20, 2021)Google Scholar.

86 Murphy, Caryle, ‘Half of U.S. adults raised Catholic have left the church at some point’, Fact Tank, September 15, 2015 https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/09/15/half-of-u-s-adults-raised-catholic-have-left-the-church-at-some-point/ (accessed April 20, 2021)Google Scholar.

87 Service, Catholic News, ‘Bishop Robert Barron: Reach Out to “Nones” or Young People Who Have Lost Affiliation’, The Dialog, June 12, 2019 https://thedialog.org/national-news/bishop-robert-barron-reach-out-to-nones-or-young-people-who-have-lost-affiliation/ (accessed April 20, 2021)Google Scholar.

88 In the 1960s, Gilson recognized that further work would be needed in Thomistic metaphysics, which in the future will depend on the existence or absence of theologians with training in the hard sciences. St Thomas's metaphysics could no longer take its starting point from the Aristotelian or Thomistic world and had to start from current understandings of physics. See Gilson, The Philosopher and Theology, 232; Jaki, Stanley L., ‘Gilson and Science’, in Saints, Sovereigns, and Scholars: Studies in Honor of Frederic D. Wilhelmsen, ed. Herrera, R.A., Lehrberger, James J., and Bradford, M.E. (New York: P. Lang, 1993), pp. 42–43Google Scholar.

89 Barron, Bishop Robert, ‘“Wokeism” in France: The Chickens Coming Home to Roost’, Word on Fire, February 18, 2021 https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/article/wokeism-in-france-the-chickens-coming-home-to-roost/29871/ (accessed April 20, 2021)Google Scholar.

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91 Gilson, ‘L'humanisme de Saint Thomas d'Aquin’, pp. 976-989; ‘Philosophie medieval et humanisme’, Association Guillaume Budé, Actes du Congrès de Nice, 24-27 avril, 1935 (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1935), pp. 340-358Google Scholar.