Alfred Loisy

He was a very devout person who dedicated his life to serving religion. He lived for 83 years most of which were spent in studying Christianity and in helping people understand the true essence of religion. He died on 1 June, 1940.

He was born on 28 February 1857 in Ambrieres, a village in Paris, France, 7 into a peasant family of humble means. He was raised in a religious environment and was prepared for a career in religion from early on.

He attended high school at the College de St. Dizier. In 1874 he entered the diocesan seminary at Chalons-sur-Marne at the age of seventeen and studied there till 1879.

He entered the Institut Catholique at Paris around 1878-79 where he continued his studies under Abbe Duchesne, a prominent church historian of those times. By this time Loisy had his doubts about religion, but nonetheless, became an ordained priest in 1879.

After being ordained as a priest, he was assigned to rural parishes for the next two years. He returned to the Institut in 1881 where he was appointed as a professor of Hebrew.

Even though he believed in the basic tenets of Christianity, he opposed several of the traditions that were attached to the interpretation of the scriptures. He believed in the historical and critical methods of studying the Bible instead.

He was of the view that there should be greater freedom in the interpretation of religious scriptures in order to spread hope and faith among mankind. Thus he decided to write an apologetic based on the historical critical method.

In 1890, he defended a thesis on the Canon of the Old Testament which led to years of critical studies on the Bible. At the same time it sparked considerable controversy as it went against the traditional beliefs.

His works also brought him in contact with other like-minded individuals like Maurice D’Hulst, George Tyrrell and Baron von Hugel, all of whom collaborated to campaign for modernizing the church’s traditional views.

His work, ‘Les Évangiles Synoptiques’, published in 1908 after years of research, is considered to be among his major works. In this work he has expressed his beliefs regarding the formation of the Catholic Church which kindled much controversy and caused his excommunication.