Charles Andler, Xavier Léon, Élie Halévy et le numéro spécial de la Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale pour le quatrième centenaire de la Réformation de Luther (1917-1918)

Abstract

In 1917, the heart of the World War I, but also the 4th centenary of Luther's Reformation, the germanist of Alsatian origin Charles Andler suggests to Xavier Léon, the manager of the Revue de métaphysique et de morale, that a special issue should be dedicated to this anniversary, so as not to leave all the prestige to Germany. The result is a rich correspondence between Andler, Léon, his friend Élie Halévy, Maurice Blondel, Ferdinand Buisson and others ones. This allows understanding the "trade secrets" of a prestigious review, forced to take into account the qualities and the reputations of the potential contributors, but also, their national and denominational identities, even if it had to stay Universalist and secular. Eighteen months later appears a big number (425 pages), À propos du quatrième centenaire de la Réforme, which includes French authors and foreigners, Protestants but also Catholics (Pierre Imbart de La Tour and Jacques Chevalier), very widely dedicated to a geopolitics of the confessions and to its political, economic and cultural influences on the contemporary world. The result is uneven: here it states the musing of the old Émile Doumergue on Calvin's filiation to president Wilson, via Knox or Locke, but also a first adaptation in French of Ernst Troeltsch's theories dues to Edmond Vermeil, who was going to become a specialist of Germany of Weimar and the Nazism. The Swiss Carl Albrecht Bernoulli multiplies the overviews sometimes risky, but often fertile, in particular when he announces the appearance of the "tragic citizen". The commemorative aim moved in inventory of the modern world and the foresight of the history to come.

Keywords

• Philosophy
• Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale
• Religion
• Geopolitics
• Affinities
• Troeltsch (Ernst)