Maurice Blondel, Social Catholicism, & Action Francaise: The Clash over the Church's Role in Society During the Modernist Era

How does the Church realize its public mission? How do different theological and philosophical commitments influence the conception of the Church's role in the public square? This work casts light on contemporary arguments over social Catholicism and the believer's role in society by illuminating a similar dispute among French Catholics during the Modernist Crisis (1909-1914).

In the first decades of the twentieth century French Catholics were sharply divided over what strategy the Church should adopt to re-Christianize society. This conflict of mentalities found expression in a polemical exchange between lay philosopher Maurice Blondel and Jesuit Pedro Descoqs that occurred at the height of the Modernist crisis. On the one hand, Descoqs offered a defense of a Catholic alliance with the proto-fascist, monarchist Action Française. On the other hand, Blondel defended the democratic, social Catholics against the charge of social modernism in his "Testis" essays. Blondel's trenchant analysis of the integralist mentality that he found in Action Française Catholics has been described as "the most penetrating analysis of this phenomenon of Catholic integralism that . . . represents an ever recurrent temptation for militant Catholics."

Peter J. Bernardi's study presents a thorough exposition and analysis of this significant controversy. While highly sensitive to historical context, Bernardi primarily highlights the philosophical and theological positions involved. He maintains throughout the book that political allegiances and orientations colored theological arguments and makes clear that the issues at stake then are still relevant in understanding ecclesial tensions today. As eminent historical theologian Joseph Komonchak notes in the foreword, "the controversy analyzed and described addressed issues so basic in importance and so broad in implication that the work will also be read with profit by others outside of the historical guild."