All thinkers
Saint · Modern
Bl. Frédéric Ozanam
1813–1853 · Social Catholicism; Christian democracy
Blessed
Latin
Beatified 1997.
A Lyonnais layman, Sorbonne professor of literature and founder of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul at the age of twenty, who held that the Church must go to the people and that charity must be joined to justice. In 1848 he supported a Catholic rallying to the Republic and founded “L'Ère nouvelle.”
Why he matters: A pioneer of lay apostolate and Catholic social teaching before Rerum Novarum, and the model of a scholar-saint who lived liberal Catholicism without Lamennais's rupture.
Reading
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A Life in LettersBl. Frédéric Ozanam (ed. Joseph Dirvin) · His mind and heart in his own correspondence.
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Civilisation in the Fifth CenturyBl. Frédéric Ozanam · How the Church made Europe; his Sorbonne lectures.
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Apostle in a Top HatJames Patrick Derum · A readable biography.
Documented positions
Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.
Settled teaching
Its center
Open question
Beyond teaching, not condemned
Condemned error
II
Faith, Reason and Truth · How we know, and whom we trust.
Faith and reason: who has the last word?
Between
Rationalism
Fideism
Are the world's learning and arts a danger or a gift?
A gift to be baptized
A danger: Athens has nothing to do with Jerusalem
A gift to be baptized
III
The Human Person · Soul, body, freedom and the Fall.
Person and community
Between
Individualism
Collectivism
VI
Church and Society · Authority, the state, wealth and the nation.
Church and state
Between
Laicism
Social kingship of Christ
The economic order
Socialism
Socialism
Laissez-faire capitalism
Where does authority come from?
Authority from God
Social contract
Authority from God
Reform or tradition?
Between
Remake by reason
Guided by tradition
The nation and the Church
Nation does not matter
Nation or race first
Nation does not matter
May the state restrain false religion?
Civil liberty for every religion
The confessional state: error has no rights
Civil liberty for every religion
Which form of government best suits a Christian people?
Democracy and participation
Monarchy and hierarchy
Democracy and participation
VII
Worship, Prayer and the Two Lungs · Liturgy, icons, the Spirit, and the See of Peter.
Should the faith take the forms of each culture it enters?
The Gospel in each people's own forms
One form everywhere
The Gospel in each people's own forms
Contemplation or action?
Action: the apostolate and the works of mercy
Action: the apostolate and the works of mercy
Contemplation: the one thing needful