Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges,OP (French:[sɛʁtijɑ̃ʒ]; 16 November 1863 – 26 July 1948), knownin religion asAntonin-Dalmace Sertillanges, was aFrench Catholic philosopher and spiritual writer. He was a member of theDominican Order.
Born Antonin-Gilbert, he took the name Antonin-Dalmace when he entered theDominican Order. He was ordained in 1888 and in 1890 was assigned to teach theology inCorbara, Corsica.
In 1893 he founded theRevue Thomiste and later became professor of moral philosophy at theInstitut Catholique de Paris.Henri Daniel-Rops wrote that it was rumored that PresidentRaymond Poincaré askedLéon-Adolphe Cardinal Amette, Archbishop of Paris, for a reply to PopeBenedict XV's peace proposals, and that Amette passed the request along to Sertillanges; in any event, Amette gave his imprimatur to this reply on 5 December 1917, five days before it was made public. InThe Heroic Life,[1] Sertillanges had defended Benedict's attitude toward peace, but in"The French Peace",[2] Sertillanges said, "Most Holy Father, we cannot for an instant entertain your appeals for peace."[3]
His scholarly work was concerned with the moral theory ofThomas Aquinas. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for two non-specialist works.The Intellectual Life is a practical guide for how to structure one's life so as to make progress as a scholar.What Jesus Saw from the Cross is a spiritual work that drew upon the time Sertillanges spent living inJerusalem. Certain of Sertillanges' works are concerned with political theory, French identity and the structure of the traditional French family.
^La vie héroïque, Third Series, 1916, esp. pp. 166—184.
^Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges (1917),"La paix française", discours prononcé en l'église Sainte-Madeleine le lundi 10 décembre 1917, en la cérémonie religieuse et patriotique prédisée par S.E. le Cardinal Archevêque de Paris, Paris: Blond et Gay.
^Henri Daniel-Rops (1964/1967),A Fight for God, 1870—1939, trans., John Warrington, fromL'Église de Révolutions: Un combat pour Dieu, reprint, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Vol. II, Notes to Ch. VII, "War and Peace", p. [243], n. 2.
