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A CRITICAL INVESTIGATION INTO the PHILOSOPHICAL, ECCLESIASTICAL, and OTHER INFLUENCES on ERNEST RENAN’S F,VIE DE JESUS”

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A CRITICAL INVESTIGATION INTO the PHILOSOPHICAL, ECCLESIASTICAL, and OTHER INFLUENCES on ERNEST RENAN’S F,VIE DE JESUS” A CRITICAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE PHILOSOPHICAL, ECCLESIASTICAL, AND OTHER INFLUENCES ON ERNEST RENAN’S f,VIE DE JESUS”. Rev, A. W, Mackie, M.A. ProQuest Number: 13905365 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 13905365 Published by ProQuest LLC(2019). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 CONTENTS, Chapter I. Introductory, Chapter II, Sources and Synopsis of the ”Vie de Jesus”, Chapter III. Influence of Positivism on the ”Vie de Jesus Chapter IV. Influence of Pantheism on the ”Vie de Jesus” Chapter V , Legendary and Racial Influences. Chapter VI. Ecclesiastical Influences. Chapter VII. Henriette Renan’s Influence. BIBLIOGRAPHY. CHAPTER I. Introductory. Summary of Chapter:- ' i860 an important year in Renan’s career. His previous reputation. Archaeological Expedition to Syria, accompanied hy his sister Henriette. Commencement of the "Vie de Jesus". Its publication. Its enormous sale. Its reception in Prance, Germany, Britain and other countries Severe criticism. Commendation. Renan’s attitude to his critics. The literary style of the book. The year i860 marked an important point in the career of Ernest Renan. He was commissioned by the Imperial Government of Prance to proceed to Syria and undertake an expedition in search of ancient Phoenician monuments, sites and inscriptions. This welcome opportunity of sojourning in a country whose inhabitants, languages, customs, and traditions had become a subject of absorbing interest to him, Renan owed to his friend Prince Napoleon, and in a yet larger measure to a woman of remarkable ability, Madame Hortense Cornu, whose mother had belonged to the household of the Emperor, and whose secret and beneficial influence was to be found in many of the liberal and intelligent measures that characterised the second half of the Empire. (Renan’s "Peuilles detachees” - essay on Madame Hortense Cornu, pp«302-32l)# The mission on which Renan was despatched to the East was probably one of the most notable scientific expeditions ever undertaken at the national cost, for it was destined to leave its mark in the history of science and ideas, not only through its direct results, for the archaeological harvest which Renan gathered on this ground which had seemed exhausted by numerous wars and revolutions was indeed rich, but also and chiefly through two great productions which resulted from it, namely, "The History of the Origins of Chri stia.nityH, and the "Corpus Inscript- : i onum Semi t|carum” • The conduct of the expedition was undoubtedly a task exactly suited to the taste of the young member of the "Academie des Inscriptions”, already distinguished for his prize essays on philological subjects. As early as 1857 he had read before the Academy a Memoire on ”The Origin and character of the Phoenician History that bears the name of Sanchoniathon", and in a note near the end of it he had expressed the hope that excavations might be made at Byblos to discover the record of Phoenician cosmogony on sacred steles which he was convinced must be there. Though but youthful in years, Renan stood in the front rank amongst the rising generation of French writers on matters of criticism, and was recognised as one of the leading Orientalists of France. Indeed, by dint of arduous toil and unremitting study he had already acquired a reputation throughout Europe as a man of letters and as an authoritative writer on Semitic languages and Eastern archaeology, and his distinguished scholarship led afterwards to his obtaining the Ghair of Hebrew at the College de France. The subjects of his Oriental publications are very varied and indicate a far-reaching study of the development of the human mind. He made his first appearance in the domain of history in a work which / / constitutes a most interesting discussion, the "Histoire Generale jr des Langues Semitiques" (1855), a study in comparative psychology, an attempt to delineate the characteristics of the Semitic race, and a witness to his marvellous industry and aptitude in the field of research, which the late Prof. R. Flint in his great book on u // the History of the Philosophy of History has characterised as "the best of all Renan*s writings". It established his fame as a philologist, and threw over all his literary works of a religious character a certain halo. On the Arabs likewise Renan wrote much which carries great weight. •« . ,, •• His exhaustive monograph on Averroes ("Averroes et 1*Averroisme", 1852), which gained for him the"Doctorat es Lettresw,and gave him a/ a place among the most erudite of European scholars, is a complete guide to one of the most complex byways of philological history. It contains an admirable history of the introduction of Greek philosophy into the west by the Arabs. Renan was attracted to this 12th.century sage as a philosopher who, to a partial reproduction of Aristotle and his commentators, based on Arabic versions of Syriac translations from the Greek, added doctrines of his own and founded a school of advanced thought, which for several centuries exerted a great influence on European speculation. Strange phenomena and phases of thought had always an attraction for Renan, whose intellectual inquisitiveness was unbounded, and his volume on Averroes is full of curious information regarding the philosophical and othe-jr sects of medieval Mohammedanism and the interaction of Averroism and scholasticism. One of his biographers truly remarks that "the range of erudition and the knowledge of the history of philosophy displayed by Renan are enormous, and he treats the abstrusest questions with an ease and animation which make the book instructive and interesting to students of the arcana of thought, and, it must be admitted, to them . alone". Two such books as the "Averroes" and the "Histoire des Langues Semitiques", backed up by the poetic and scholarly translations of the Book of Job,of Ecclesiastes,and of the Song of Songs^with their accompanying essays, also by a number of able essays in the Revue des Deux Mondes- afterwards collected in book form and 9 / published in the "Etudes d'Histoire Religieuse" and the "Essais de/ de Morale et de Critique" - all issued before the appearance of the "Vie de Jesus," and probably of more account than it from the point of view of scholarship, and certainly not inferior to it in literary workmanship - had made Renan by the year i860 one of the most distinguished scholars of his country, and sure of an audience not only among experts, but among cultured readers throughout Europe. No other man could lay claim to an erudition at once so universal and so precise as his. No branch of human knowledge was alien to him. One of the most opulent natures that have adorned modern literature, he took captive his readers by the breadth of his learning and the abundance of his ideas, no less than by the magic of his style. A philologist - he was that first and foremost - a historian, a theologian, a philosopher, a publicist, he appealed to thoughtful men of every variety of intellectual character. It is evident therefore that he was well qualified for the conduct of the important expedition to which he was commissioned by the French Government. Renan*s devoted sister, Henriette, acting as his manager, secretary, and beloved confidante, accompanied him on that mission to Phoenicia which was to be one of the leading episodes of his life. During the greater part of a year he was engaged in excavations and travels. Assisted by soldiers of the army of occupation, and having a naval steamer at his disposal for coastal trips, he plunged heart, mind,and strength into his task. He was the earliest Syrian excavator on a large scale. From November 26th*i860 to February 9th,1861 he was at Byblus, then / then at Tyre, Sidon, Tortosa, and other places on the coast, making excursions into the Lebanon mountains, and spending days in the desert under a tent. He was frequently eight or ten hours in the saddle at a time, undergoing all sorts of fatigues and hardships without complaint. His interest in what he saw eclipsed all sense of discomfort. From morning to night he was busy travelling, planning, supervising. Four campaigns were inaugurated under his eye, and then continued by assistants. All kinds of negotiations had to be undertaken both with officials and with the populace, schemes of work had to be laid out, unearthed objects had to be viewed and classified, larger monuments carefully studied and measured, and reports prepared. Henriette writes that both she and her brother had unusual health and strength, and indeed for this task they needed all the physical vigour with which they were endowed. She accom— rpanied him on most of his expeditions, bearing hardships and privations beyond the endurance of most women, taking charge also of the accounts, copying and arranging the records, and relieving her brother of all material cares. Lockroy, who made drawings for the expedition, reports that Renan was like a child in the hands of his sister, who looked after him incessantly, laid down the law to him, and occasionally scolded him. Meantime there was another history than that of Phoenicia, and another classic ground than that of Hiram and Dido, which, through all these months, was exercising a strange fascination on/ on this worshipper of Science* The attraction proved too great to be resisted, and, unlike Napoleon, who is said to have replied on a similar occasion, "Jerusalem n'entre pas dans la ligne de mes operations", Henan traversed with his devoted sister the whole of Palestine as far south as Hebron, and paid repeated visits to the most alluring and classic ground of all, Galilee.
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