Recent Catholic Philosophy: The Nineteenth Century (review)

As Alan Vincelette observes in this book, it is a regrettable feature of standard histories of nineteenth-century philosophy that they tend to ignore or overlook the burgeoning of a distinctly Catholic philosophical tradition during this time. For Vincelette, it is all the more regrettable that Catholic historians of philosophy have done little to draw attention to this fact. As he puts it, “many Catholic historians of [nineteenth-century] philosophy either omit some important Catholic philosophers or fail to mention that a given philosopher was Catholic” (p. 8). The aim of this book, accordingly, is to “remedy this situation and so make known the central figures in Nineteenth-Century Catholic philosophy”; moreover, to show how “it is really in the Nineteenth-Century that Catholic Philosophy comes into its own” (p. 8).

Based on a lecture course, the book is clearly laid out, treating various nineteenth-century philosophical movements (and select representatives of these movements) with chapters on romanticism (François-René de Chateaubriand and Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel), fideism and traditionalism (Louis Eugène Marie Bautain and Louis de Bonald), semi-rationalism (Anton Günther and Georg Hermes), spiritualism (Jean-Gaspard Félix Lacher Ravaisson-Mollien), ontologism (Antonio Rosmini-Serbati and Orestes Brownson), Thomism (Joseph Kleutgen and Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier), Augustinianism (Auguste Joseph Alphonse Gratry and Maurice Blondel), and integralism (Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman and Leon Ollé-Laprune). As these pairings would suggest, and given the inevitable constraints of any survey work, Vincelette is selective in the figures and topics he treats (p. 9). Still, he succeeds in giving a rich impression of the diversity of Catholic philosophers during this time, including neglected figures such as the American Catholic philosopher Brownson (1803–76).

On the whole, however, the book is stronger in its treatment of the French philosophical scene than the contemporary German scene. To be sure, the inclusion of Schlegel, Günther, Hermes, and Kleutgen must be appreciated. But, perhaps due to the absence of a clear category for classification, missing is any treatment of the Tübingen school that includes its founder Johann Sebastian Drey (1777–1853), Johann Adam Möhler (1796–1838), Franz Anton Staudenmaier (1800–56), and Johannes Kuhn (1806–87). This is not an insignificant omission, given the prominence of German idealism in the nineteenth century, its challenges to Catholic theology in Germany, and the brilliance of the Tübingen school’s innovative philosophical response to it. Staudenmeier’s monumental critique of Hegel and of Kuhn’s masterful reception of Schelling and the whole of modern philosophy are relevant in this regard. Admittedly, the omission of such figures can be justified on the grounds that they are theologians and together do not constitute a particular “ism”; but this only raises again the questions of selection and who exactly counts as a Catholic philosopher.

Another question implicitly raised by the book, which it does not answer, is whether the diversity of Catholic thinkers and movements, as represented here, militates against any notion of a unified tradition of Catholic philosophy in the nineteenth century. Moreover, the book does not address the larger theoretical question, which bears directly on the thesis of the book and demands serious consideration, whether there can be such a thing as “Catholic philosophy.” (The differing views of Heidegger and Gilson are notable in this regard.)

A final, minor critical observation is that this book reads like a compendium, a volume of an encyclopedia, or an extensive bibliography of nineteenth-century Catholic philosophy. On nearly every page there are masses of dates, abbreviations, and citations, which can impede reading. But the textual apparatus is also impressive, laden with details, and testifies to the author’s extensive historical erudition. Indeed, what makes this a difficult read is also what makes it a helpful and important single-volume reference work on the topic.