Edmond Dehault de Pressensé (7 January 1824 – 8 April 1891) was a French Protestant religious leader.

Biography

He was born at Paris, and studied at Lausanne under Alexandre Vinet. He went on to the University of Halle as a pupil of Friedrich August Tholuck and to Humboldt University in Berlin, where he studied under August Neander. In 1847 he became a pastor in the Evangelical Church at the chapel of Taitbout in Paris.[1][2][3]

He was a powerful preacher and political orator; from 1871 he was a member of the National Assembly, and from 1883 a life senator. In 1890 he was elected a member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques.[2] Pressensé laboured for the revival of biblical studies. He contended that the Evangelical Church ought to be independent of the power of the state.[3]

His son Francis de Pressensé was a French politician and man of letters.[4]

Published works

In 1854 he founded the Revue chrétienne,[2] and in 1866 the Bulletin idéologique. His works include:

  • L'Immaculée conception: histoire d'un dogme Catholique-Roman (1855)
  • Histoire des trois premiers siècles de l'Église chrétienne (6 volumes. 1856–1877; new edition 1887–1889)
  • L'Église et la Révolution française (1864)
  • Jésus-Christ, son temps, sa vie, son œuvre (against Ernest Renan, 1866)
  • Les Origines, le problème de la connaissance; le problème cosmologique (1883)

Several of his works have been translated into English:

  • The Immaculate Conception (1857) translated by Adolf Zytogorski
  • Jesus Christ: his times, life, and work (1866) translated by Annie Harwood Holmden
  • The early years of Christianity: a comprehensive history of the first three centuries of the Christian church (4 volumes, 1879) translated by Annie Harwood Holmden
  • A Study of origins: or, the problems of knowledge, of being, and of duty (1883) translated by Annie Harwood Holmden
  • The ancient world and Christianity (1888) translated by Annie Harwood Holmden[5]

References

  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pressensé, Edmond Dehault de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 299.
  • HathiTrust Digital Library (published works)
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