Blondel, Maurice

(1861–1949)

   Philosopher.

   Blondel was born in Dijon, France and, for the greater part of his career taught philosophy at the University of Aix-en-Provence. His books include L’Action: Essai d’une Critique de la Vie et d’une Science de la Pratique (his doctoral thesis), Histoire et Dogme, Le Procès de l’Intelligence, Le Problème de la Philosophie Catholique and La Pensée. He insisted that it is not only through the human intellect that the truth is found, but through the whole of experience. It follows then that faith cannot be equated with accepting received dogma intellectually, but is found by perceiving God beyond the natural order. This pragmatic emphasis was highly influential within the French Catholic Modernist movement, although Blondel himself rejected loisy’s views on dogma and history. He remained a devout Roman Catholic all his life and was regarded as one of the foremost religious thinkers of his time.

   J.J. McNeill, The Blondelian Synthesis (1966).