Karl Barth (1886-1968)
The theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968) was an outstanding protestant personality of the 20th century. His work questioned many a certainty. It also influenced several generations of pastors, especially in France....
Karl Barth (1886-1968), a detailed biography
The strictness and deep originality of the theologian’s work ensured its rapid spread throughout Protestantism and among catholic theologians, and caused intense debates and long-lasting polemics.
The written works of Karl Barth (1886-1968)
At the core of Karl Barth’s written works are the numerous volumes of the Church Dogmatics. This huge undertaking to develop a theology nourished an ethical problem pertaining to history,...
The acceptance of Karl Barth’s work in France
In the mid-1920s Karl Barth’s writings were already known in France. Pastor Pierre Maury and the “Fédé” (The French Federation of Christian Students’ associations), played a major role in circulating...
The “Church of the Desert” in the Heroic Period (1715-1760)
The time when Reformed Church religious practices were banned by royal edicts is called the “Desert” period. They had to be performed in secret. It is called “heroic” because, when...
The secret re-building of churches
The secret re-building of churches was the work of Antoine Court who re-established discipline in Reformed Churches, first in the south then in some areas of the north.
The Church under Louis XV (1724 to 1760)
Under Louis XV the Protestant church was still banned and the repression continued. But this varied over time, from region to region and depending on the person who was Intendant...
Religion in the “Desert” period (1715-1787)
Following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, French Protestants recanted or went into exile. But among those who recanted, some continued to practice in secret, read the Bible and...
Religious practice in the time of the “Desert”
Antoine Court reorganised the practice of religion in secret (also called religion “in the Desert”), returning things to the more disciplined ways of the Reformed Church before the revoking of...
Pastors of the “Church of the Desert”
Following the revoking of the Edict of Nantes, Protestant pastors had to leave France. From 1715, encouraged by Antoine Court, a new group of pastors gradually emerged. The “Church of...
“Church of the Desert” Synods
During the time Protestant religious practice was banned in France, services were held in secret (“Church of the Desert” meetings) in many parts of the country, but particularly in the...
The Gibert brothers
The Gibert brothers exercised a pastoral ministry during the period of the “underground” church. They both had an eventful life that drove them from the “Desert” church to the Refuge.
Jean Jarousseau (1729-1819)
A pastor in the “Church of the Desert”, Jean Jarousseau exercised his ministry in Saintonge at the end of the Heroic Period and during the time called the Period of...
Paul Ricœur (1913-2005)
Paul Ricoeur considered himself to be a philosopher by profession and Christian in his religion. He was thought to be one of the greatest post-war French thinkers. Ricoeur lived a...
François Wendel (1905-1972)
François Wendel was a lutheran lawyer who devoted much study to the Reformation movement, religious institutions in Alsace and Calvin. He was appointed Dean to the protestant University of Strasbourg,...
Edouard Reuss (1804-1891)
Although Edouard Reuss was a professor of theology in the protestant Faculty of Strasburg, he was above all a historian ; dogmatics had little to do with his analysis of the...
Frédéric Lichtenberger (1832-1899)
Frédéric Lichtenberger was a Lutheran pastor at the Faculty of Theology in Strasbourg until the annexation of Alsace. He was Dean of the Faculty of Theology in Paris ; he was...
The tolerated “Church of the Desert” (1760-1787)
In the second half of the XVIIIth century, the marginalisation that excluded Protestants from French society gradually eased.