Les religions et les cultures dans l’Occident européen au XIXe siècle (1800–1914) by Gérard Cholvy (review)

Gérard Cholvy, who taught history at Montpellier from 1962 to 2002, was one of the leading figures in the golden age of French religious history. He has written both general histories and more detailed studies, focusing especially on youth movements, popular religion, and the geography of French Catholicism. This new synthesis covers not only France but also Italy, Germany, and England, although the sections on France are the strongest. After a review of the situation c. 1800, subsequent chapters examine the religious impact of romanticism and positivism; the spiritual revival of the later nineteenth century; religious art; the religion of women; and Christian missions in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. The book ends with a review of the situation c. 1914. There is then a “Postface” that outlines Cholvy’s career as an historian and the influences on him, starting with his time as leader in the Catholic student movement in the 1950s. The main argument of the book is that in opposition to the familiar model of a linear process of gradual secularization—a model favored especially by those who see secularization as a byproduct of a process of modernization—the period from the later eighteenth to the early-twentieth centuries saw an ebb and flow, with periods of religious decline followed by periods of revival. Thus he stresses the critical state of religion in France (and, indeed, in some of the countries occupied by French armies) as a result of the disruptions and persecutions inflicted by the Revolution. But after that there was a revival, peaking in the 1840s. The 1850s to the 1880s were the golden age of positivism, marked by growing anticlericalism and culminating in the secularizing legislation of the early Third Republic. But 1886 saw the start of a Catholic revival, which peaked in the years immediately before World War I. Cholvy’s model works well for France, but whether it can be applied generally is more questionable: in fact, European religious history from the 1790s to the 1960s reflects national differences as much as, or even more than, common trends. For example, England saw remarkable church growth from the 1790s to the 1840s, stabilization from the 1850s to the 1880s, and decline from the 1890s. The most distinctive aspect of the book is perhaps the emphasis on key personalities. There are numerous portraits of these men and women, and Cholvy stresses the importance of their initiatives as theologians, social reformers, missionaries, or founders of religious communities. However, the multiplication of examples of notable individuals is sometimes taken too far—lending itself to a narrative approach that obscures wider issues of interpretation. This applies especially to the section on missions. His writing is especially vivid when his sympathies are most fully engaged. He describes with enthusiasm, as well as erudition, the many Catholic conversions among intellectuals in the early-twentieth century; the growing Catholic (and to a lesser extent Protestant) presence among students; and the vibrant Catholic youth movement, noted for the prowess of its soccer and basketball teams. Another highlight is the section on religious art, which includes not only Eugène Delacroix, the Nazarenes, and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (although not Emil Nolde) but also the “democratization of piety” brought about by mass production, notably of plaster saints selling for 12 francs. Written in an informal style but informed by Cholvy’s vast knowledge of modern French religion and society, the book can be read with enjoyment by specialists but is directed principally at students and the general reader.