Loisy, Harnack, Troeltsch and the Comparative Study of Religions: Notes on a Recent Volume

Alfred Loisy (1857–1940) is a key figure for the history of Christianity and the history of exegesis. While his involvement in the so-called “Modernist crisis” and his role as a Biblical scholar have been the subject of several publications, his role in the history of religions and in the historical development of religious comparativism is far less investigated. A recent monograph by Annelies Lannoy (Alfred Loisy and the Making of History of Religions, 2020) is now helping to fill this scholarly lacuna. In the present article, I offer some considerations on Lannoy’s book, taking it as a starting point to develop some additional thoughts on the theoretical and methodological connections that Loisy has with John Henry Newman and with Ernst Troeltsch. In particular, I address Troeltsch’s “relativization” of Christianity and its relation to religious comparativism. I also recall the pivotal debate between Loisy and Harnack.