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biography
| name: |
Renan, (Joseph) Ernest
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pronunciation:
[ruhnã]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1823–92)
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| biography:
| Philosopher and historian, born in Tréguier, NW France. He studied theology, but left the seminary only to reject the priesthood after studying Greek and Hebrew biblical criticism. His appointment as professor of Hebrew at the Collège de France in 1861 was not confirmed until 1870 because of his controversial La Vie de Jèsus (1863, The Life of Jesus), which undermined the supernatural aspects of Christ's life and his teachings. The work began his Histoire du Christianisme, which would take up 20 years of his life and make him the great popularizer of the history of religions in the 19th-c. Included were books on the Apostles (1866), St Paul (1869), and Marcus Aurelius (1882). Suspended from his first course at the Collège de France because he called Jesus ‘Homme incomparable’, he was re-admitted to finish as the College director. A moralist and philologist, he wrote Essais de Morale et de Critique (1859) and De l'Origine du Language. His L'Avenir de la Science (1848–9) was published in 1890. He was elected a member of the Académie Française in 1878. |
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