The Gospel According to Renan: Reading, Writing, and Religion in Nineteenth-Century France

289 Pages·2015·3.71 MB·English

by  Robert D. Priest

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO RENAN
OXFORD HISTORICAL MONOGRAPHS
The Oxford Historical Monographs series publishes some of the best
Oxford University doctoral theses on historical topics, especially
those likely to engage the interest of a broad academic readership.
Editors
P. Clavin J. Darwin l. GolDman
J. innes D. Parrott s. smith
B. warD-Perkins J. l. w atts
The Gospel According
to Renan
Reading, Writing, and Religion in
Nineteenth-Century France
ROBERT D. PRIEST
1
1
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Acknowledgements
When writing the draft of Vie de Jésus in Byblos, Renan was struck by
illness and faced the real prospect of never finishing his cherished manu-
script. In a panicked last testament, he assigned each of his friends and
colleagues a particular section of the book to complete if he did not make
it home to Paris. Luckily for them, he did. Although I have neither dared
nor needed to call in favours of this magnitude, my work has certainly
drawn on the time, expertise, and generosity of others. It is a pleasure to
be able to acknowledge them here.
I am enormously grateful to Marie-Claude Sabouret, who welcomed
me to the Musée de la Vie Romantique’s archives with extraordinary kind-
ness over many months. I would belatedly like to thank Marie-France
Guillermine-Robin at the Maison Renan in Tréguier, whose gift of a book
fortuitously led me to the readers’ letters in Paris. I am also thankful
to staff at the Archives Nationales, Bibliothèque Nationale de France,
Bodleian Library, British Library, Cambridge University Library, Collège
de France, Library of Congress, and Université de Montréal. Bernez Rouz
at Arkae generously helped me gather material on Jean-Marie Déguignet.
I am grateful for financial support from the Arts and Humanities Research
Council; Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge; New College, Oxford;
the Royal Historical Society; the Society for the History of Authorship,
Reading and Publication; and the Society for the Study of French
History. I am grateful to History of European Ideas and the Journal of
Modern History for permission to reproduce work here that first appeared
in journal articles. I have benefited immeasurably from sharing versions
of much of this work with various conference and seminar audiences
in Arizona, Berlin, Cambridge, Helsinki, London, Newcastle, Oxford,
Paris, and Quebec City.
My interest in this subject began about a decade ago with an undergrad-
uate essay on Jesus in the nineteenth century. I am indebted to Rebecca
Spang for making me read Renan in the first place and then encourag-
ing me to push my ideas further. During and after my doctorate, many
people in Oxford, Paris, and elsewhere provided me with useful advice,
comments, or references. I particularly want to thank Robert Gildea,
Abigail Green, Carol Harrison, Matt Houlbrook, Tom Kselman, Judith
Lyon-Caen, and Nathalie Richard. A Research Fellowship at Gonville and
Caius College provided the ideal environment for revising my thesis into
this book. I am grateful to the whole gang of Caius historians for making
vi Acknowledgements
me feel at home. In Cambridge my work on Renan particularly profited
from discussions with Gareth Atkins, Naor Ben-Yehoyada, Émile Chabal,
Andrew Counter, Theodor Dunkelgrün, Michael Ledger-Lomas, Peter
Mandler, Jason Scott-Warren, and Tom Stammers. I was very fortunate
to have Chris Clark and David Hopkin as doctoral examiners; their intel-
lectual generosity has hugely improved this work. Most of all I wish to
thank Ruth Harris, who was a warm and inspiring supervisor, has helped
me to think and write about history in new ways, and continues to share
her wisdom and encouragement in all things.
During the gestation of this book I have benefited from many stimulat-
ing friends who, among other things, kept me thinking. At the inevitable
risk of forgetting somebody—sorry!—I would especially like to thank
Deborah Bauer, Emma Bielecki, Andrew Bishop, Ludivine Broch, Erin
Corber, Eleanor Davey, Emily Dezurick-Badran, Alex Fairfax-Cholmeley,
Mike Finch, Sophie Fuggle, Becky Gilmore, James Golden, Chloe Jeffries,
Anne Jusseaume, Julie Kleinman, Dan Lee, Imogen Lee, Mike Marks,
Gerald Moore, Dora Osborne, Tamson Pietsch, Will Pooley, Sam Taylor,
and Pav Vickers. I owe a special debt to Erika Hanna and Sarah Marks for
their boundless friendship and camaraderie. Thanks to both for keeping
life interesting and always letting me know when I stopped making sense.
I would certainly never have gotten as far as writing a book if my family,
especially Mum and Dad, had not always encouraged and supported me
in the things I have chosen to do over the years. I am also thankful to the
Pérezes, who have welcomed me into their home with great warmth over
the past few years. My biggest debt is to Cristina, who keeps pushing me
to make myself clearer, and endures my journeys into obscurity with an
infectious smile. Thank you.
Contents
List of Figures ix
List of Abbreviations xi
1. Introduction 1
2. The Author 19
3. The Book 69
4. The Debate 109
5. The Audience 154
6. The Legacy 180
Epilogue: Saint Renan 229
Bibliography 233
Index 255

List of Figures
1.1. The Librairie Nouvelle on the Boulevard des Italiens around 1857 2
6.1. Jean Béraud, La Madeleine chez les Pharisien (1891) 181
6.2. Godefroy Durand’s Crucifixion, from the illustrated Vie de Jésus
of 1870 186
6.3. Jean Boucher’s statue of Renan in Tréguier, erected 1903 220
6.4. Tréguier town square on 13 September 1903. Illustration, 19
September 1903 224
6.5. Tréguier cathedral tower on 13 September 1903. Illustration, 19
September 1903 225
6.6. The ‘Calvary of Reparation’ at Tréguier, erected 1904 227