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From Italy to Harvard: George LaPiana and Catholic Modernism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2014

Elizabeth A. Clark
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Modernism: What was it? When was it? Does Modernism name “a break with the past,” proclaim the present as “qualitatively distinct and new”—or is Modernism's self-representation as an “ideology of rupture, opposition, and anti-institutionality” over-hyped? And when was the “when” of Modernism? Do Modernism's origins trace back to the era of Romanticism? Or to the 1880s and Baudelaire? Or to 1913 and Stravinsky's “Rite of Spring”? Or to 1922: the publication of Ulysses, “The Waste Land,” and the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus?

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Forum
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Church History , Volume 83 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 145 - 153
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Copyright © American Society of Church History 2014 

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References

18 The George LaPiana Archives are housed in Harvard Divinity School Library; all references are listed simply by “LaPiana.” Ross, Stephen, “Introduction: The Missing Link,” in Modernism and Theory: A Critical Debate, ed. Ross (London: Routledge, 2009)Google Scholar, 3.

19 Schoenbach, Lisi, Pragmatic Modernism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012)Google Scholar, 12.

20 de Man, Paul, “What is Modern?” in de Man, Critical Writings, 1953–1978, ed. Waters, Lindsay (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989 [original essay: 1965])Google Scholar, 139.

21 Also the year in which F. Scott Fitzgerald set The Great Gatsby and Virginia Woolf began Mrs. Dalloway. On the significance of 1922, see North, Michael, Reading 1922: A Return to the Scene of the Modern (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999)Google Scholar, esp. v–vi, 3–8.

22 Brooker, Peter, “Introduction,” The Oxford Handbook of Modernisms, eds. Brooker, et al. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 8.

23 Roger Luckhurst, “Religion, Psychical Research, Spiritualism, and the Occult,” in Oxford Handbook, 429–444.

24 Luckhurst, “Religion, Psychical Research,” 432–433. Ezra Pound declared that the Christian era ended on October 30, 1921, when James Joyce wrote the final words of Ulysses: see North, Reading 1922, 3, citing [Ezra Pound], “The Little Review Calendar,” The Little Review 8 (Spring 1922): 2.Google Scholar

25 LaPiana, “Memoirs” (bMS104/1 [3], “Childhood,” pp. 2–3). On his life, see Williams, George H., “Professor George LaPiana (1878–1971): Catholic Modernist at Harvard (1915–1947),” Harvard Library Bulletin 21, no. 2 (April 1973): 117–143.Google Scholar

26 LaPiana, “Memoirs” (bMS104/1 [3], “Childhood,” pp. 7, 9); (bMS104/1 [4], “Education and Vocation,” n.p.).

27 LaPiana, “Memoirs” (bMS104/1 [4], “Education and Vocation,” pp. 1–2, n.d.).

28 LaPiana, “Modernism-Origin” (bMS104/1 [5], p. 4).

29 LaPiana, “Memoirs” (bMS104/1 [4], “Education and Vocation,” n.p.); “Modernism-Origin” (bMS104/1 [5], p. 5).

30 LaPiana, “Memoirs” (bMS104/1 [4], “Education and Vocation,” another version, n.p.). He regretted keeping his clerical status (“Memoirs” [bMS104/1 (4), “Education and Vocation,” n.d., pp. 5–6]).

31 Elsewhere, 1913 is given: probably correct, because LaPiana was in America when World War I erupted: see LaPiana, “Wars” (bMS104/1 [8], p. 2); “Memoirs” (bMS104/1 [6], “San Rocco,” another version, p. 2); (bMS104/1 [7], “San Rocco to America,” pp. 2–3) and “San Rocco to America,” another version, n.p., n.d.).

32 LaPiana, “Memoirs” (bMS104/1 [7], “San Rocco to America,” another version, n.p.).

33 LaPiana, “Memoirs” (bMS104/1 [8], “Harvard Divinity School,” “Divinity School,” 5).

34 LaPiana, “Memoirs” (bMS104/1 [7], “San Rocco to America,” another version, n.p.).

35 LaPiana, “Memoirs” (bMS104/1 [8], “Harvard Divinity School,” “Divinity School,” pp. 3, 5).

36 LaPiana, “Memoirs” (bMS104/1 [8], new draft, p. 2). When conservative (“narrow”) Boston Catholics protested, Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell protected him.

37 LaPiana, “Wars” (bMS104/1 [8], pp. 4–5).

38 LaPiana, “Memoirs” (bMS104/1 [8], “Visiting in Italy,” pp. 1, 6 and “Return from Italy,” pp. 1–2).

39 LaPiana, “Unitarian and Catholic Controversies” (bMS104/1 [11], p. 1). On early leanings toward agnosticism: LaPiana, “Memoirs” (bMS104/1 [4], “Education and Vocation,” n.p.).

40 Williams, “Professor George LaPiana,” 141–143.

41 The name is given in the encyclical Pascendi gregis of 1907, in [Buonaiuti, Ernesto], The Programme of Modernism, trans. Tyrrell, George, introduction by Lilley, A. Leslie (New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons/ Knickerbocker Press, 1908)Google Scholar, 153. The name was given by adversaries: see Alfred Loisy, Simples réflexions sur le décret du Saint-Office Lamentabili sane exitu et sur l'encyclique Pascendi dominici gregis (Ceffonds: Chez l'auteur, 1908), 13–14.Google Scholar For discussion: Gabriel Daly, OSA, “Theological and Philosophical Modernism,” in Catholicism Contending With Modernity: Roman Catholic Modernism and Anti-Modernism in Historical Context, ed. Jodock, Darrell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 102; Morghen, Raffaello, “Il modernismo e la Storia del Cristianesimo,” in Ernesto Buonaiuti Storico del Cristianesimo, A Trent' Anni della Morte (Roma: Istituto Storico Italiano per Il Medio Evo, 1978)Google Scholar, 18.

42 Vidler, Alex R., The Modernist Movement in the Roman Church: Its Origins and Outcome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1934)Google Scholar, chapter 23; Darrell Jodock, “Introduction II: The Modernists and the Anti-Modernists,” in Catholicism Contending, 24. Germany was less affected by the movement.

43 Background: Lease, Gary, “Modernism and ‘Modernism’: Christianity as Product of Its Culture,” Journal for the Study of Religion 1 (September 1988): 17–18.Google Scholar

44 Petre, M. [Maude] D., Modernism: Its Failures and Its Fruits (London: T. C. and E. C. Jack, Ltd., [1918])Google Scholar, 202. Also see Vidler, Modernist Movement, 5–6. On Biblical criticism as central: Reardon, Bernard M. G., Roman Catholic Modernism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1970)Google Scholar, 13, 197; Loisy, Simples réflexions, 143–144.

45 Vidler, Modernist Movement, 133; Reardon, Roman Catholic Modernism, 10, 35–36; Harvey Hill, “The Politics of Loisy's Modernist Theology,” in Catholicism Contending, 185.

46 English translation of Pascendi in [Buonaiuti], Programme, pp. 149–245. On the condemnations: Reardon, Roman Catholic Modernism, 63; Vidler, Modernist Movement, 217–219; Kurtz, Lester R., Politics of Heresy: The Modernist Crisis in Roman Catholicism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 150–154.Google Scholar

47 Pascendi gregis, in [Buonaiuti], Programme, 214.

48 The decree regarding the oath (Sacrorum Antistitum of September 8, 1910) required clergy to affirm that “external proofs of revelation,” such as miracles and prophecies, were “very certain signs of the divine origin of the Christian religion”; that the Church was “directly and immediately instituted by the true and historic Christ Himself, during his life amongst us”; that “the heretical supposition of the evolution of dogmas” must be rejected. The oath-takers subscribe to the condemnations of Pascendii and Lamentabili, “especially in all that concerns the history of dogma.” See Petre, Modernism, 179–182; Fogarty, Gerald P., , S.J., American Catholic Biblical Scholarship: A History from the Early Republic to Vatican II (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989)Google Scholar, 170.

49 Pascendi gregis, in [Buonaiuti], Programme, 232–236. For history, see Vidler, Modernist Movement, chap. 26; Darrell Jodock, “Introduction I: The Modernist Crisis,” in Catholicism Contending, 1–19; Kurtz, Politics of Heresy, 150–154, 158.

50 See LaPiana, “Ernesto Buonaiuti's Spiritual Vision,” An Address Delivered on September 24, 1946, at the Opening Session of Harvard Divinity School, in Pilgrim of Rome: An Introduction to the Life and Work of Ernesto Buonaiuti, eds. Nelson, Claude and Pittenger, Norman (Welwyn [U.K.]: James Nisbet and Company, 1969)Google Scholar, 7, 11.

51 The social-political side of the movement was associated with the party Lega Democratica Nazionale, founded by the politically progressive (but theologically conservative) Dom Romolo Murri. See Reardon, Roman Catholic Modernism, 60; Kurtz, Politics of Heresy, 87–88; Ranchetti, Michele, The Catholic Modernists: A Study of the Religious Reform Movement 1864–1907, trans. Quigley, Isabel (London: Oxford University Press, 1969)Google Scholar, 95, 97, 103, 115, 152, 153, 177.

52 See n39 above for bibliographical information.

53 LaPiana, “Modernism” (bMS104/1 [5], p. 3); “Modernism in Italy” (bMS104/1 [5], p. 2); “Ernesto Buonaiuti's Spiritual Vision,” in Pilgrim of Rome, 6.

54 LaPiana, “The Roman Catholic Church from the Council of Trent to the Present Day, February–May 1917: Modernism” (bMS104/17 [6], p. 424).

55 LaPiana, unidentified lecture [on historical method] (bMS104/18 [8], n.p.).

56 LaPiana, “Modernism” (bMS104/1 [5], pp. 3–4); “Modernism in Italy” (bMS104/1 [5], pp. 2, 4): his training in philosophy encouraged rationalism.

57 LaPiana, “Modernism” (bMS104/1 [5], pp. 3, 5, 4, 2).

58 LaPiana, untitled sheet (bMS104/16 [10], n.p., n.d.). Print version: LaPiana, “Theology of History,” in The Interpretation of History, ed. Strayer, Joseph R. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1943), 149–186.Google ScholarPubMed

59 LaPiana, “Democratic Ideals in the History of the Church”: The Southworth Lectures at Andover Seminary (bMS104/8 [2], p. 4).

60 LaPiana, unidentified lecture [on historical method] (bMS104/20 [2], pp. 5–6).

61 LaPiana, unidentified lecture [on historical method] (bMS104/20 [2], p. 5).

62 LaPiana, “The Roman Catholic Church from the Council of Trent to the Present Day, February–May 1917: Modernism” (bMS104/17 [6], pp. 417, 418, 420–422). Jesus had no concept of a Church; LaPiana cites Loisy's thesis on the Kingdom that did not come and the Church that did (lecture, class on early Christianity (bMS104/20 [1], p. 70, September 25, 1946).

63 LaPiana, “Christian Historiography” (bMS104/18 [9], pp. 1–4, November 8, 1938). The study of comparative religions suggested that Christianity had developed in ways similar to other religions (pp. 6–7).

64 LaPiana, “Christian Historiography” (bMS104/18 [9], p. 8, November 8, 1938).

65 LaPiana, “Christian Historiography” (bMS104/18 [9], pp. 10–11, 12, November 8, 1938).

66 LaPiana, “The Roman Catholic Church from the Council of Trent to the Present Day, February–May 1917: Modernism” (bMS104/17 [6], p. 427).

67 LaPiana, “Christian Historiography” (bMS104/18 [9], pp. 13–14, 15, November 8, 1938).

68 LaPiana, “Christian Historiography” (bMS104/18 [9], pp. 16–17, 18–19, November 8, 1938).

69 LaPiana, unidentified pages on Harnack (bMS104/6 [1], pp. 1–2). Emphasis added.

70 LaPiana, “Christian Historiography” (bMS104/18 [9], p. 14, November 8, 1938).

71 LaPiana, “Christianity and the Roman Government” (bMS104/23 [5], p. 8).

72 For example, the system of patronage: see LaPiana, “The Social History of the Church: College Lectures” (bMS104/23 [4], Lecture VII, p. 9, October 20, 1937).

73 LaPiana, “The Social History of the Church: College Lectures” (bMS104/23 [4], Lecture VIII, pp. 7–8, October 25, 1937).

74 LaPiana, “The Social History of the Church: College Lectures” (bMS104/23 [6], Lecture XX, p. 2, December 15, 1937). In another class, LaPiana assigns the last chapter of Rostovzeff's Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire (LaPiana, unidentified class lecture [bMS104/23 (5), Lecture XIV, p. 4], November 17, 1937).

75 LaPiana, untitled address (bMS104/3 [3], p.8, March 10, 1926).

76 For example, Tyrrell, George, “Reflections on Catholicism,” in Scylla and Charybdis, or the Old Theology and the New (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1907), 32–36Google Scholar; Loisy, Alfred, The Birth of the Christian Religion, trans. Jacks, L. P. (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1948 [French original: 1933])Google Scholar, 151.

77 LaPiana, “Democratic Ideals in the History of the Church”: The Southworth Lectures at Andover Seminary (bMS104/8 [2], p. 8).

78 LaPiana, unidentified class lecture (bMS104/17 [7], Lecture II, pp. 2–3, October 4, 1937); unidentified talk (bMS104/17 [7], pp. 10–11).

79 LaPiana, “The Social History of the Church: College Lectures” (bMS104/23 [4], Lecture VII, p. 6, October 20, 1937).

80 LaPiana, “Expansion and Propagation of Christianity” (bMS104/16 [10], Lecture IX, pp. 48–49); LaPiana, unidentified course lecture (bMS104/17 [7], Lecture II, p. 9, October 4, 1937).

81 LaPiana, “The Social History of the Church: College Lectures” (bMS104/23 [4], Lecture XI, pp. b, c, d, Nov. 3, 1937).

82 LaPiana, “The Social History of the Church: College Lectures” (bMS104/23 [8], Lecture XXXVI, pp. 7–9, April 11, 1938).

83 De Man, “What is Modern?” in de Man, Critical Writings, 137–138.

84 Schoenbach, Pragmatic Modernism, 13, with a nod to Richard Rorty.