Jean Guitton (August 18, 1901 – March 21, 1999) was a French

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

. ''

Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...

'' called him "the last of the great Catholic philosophers."

Biography

Born in

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...

, Loire in August 1901, he was the son of Auguste Guitton, a prosperous passementerie industrialist, and Gabrielle Bertrand, both devout Catholics. He studied at the Lycée du Parc in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

and was accepted at the

École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1920. His principal religious and intellectual influence was from a blind priest, François Pouget. He finished his philosophical studies in the early 1920s and taught in a number of secondary schools. Guitton was a disciple of philosopher

Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; ; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopher who was influential in the traditions of analytic philosophy and continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the S ...

.Pace, Eric. "Jean Guitton, 97, Philosopher, Author and Friend of Popes", ''The New York Times'', March 27, 1999
/ref> During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he was made a war prisoner by the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

. Guitton held university professorships in Montpellier and then Dijon. On 3 September 1948, at Nice, Guitton married Marie-Louise Honorine Bonnet (Puget-Théniers, Alpes-Maritimes, 22.03.1901 - Nice, 18.01.1974). In the year 1954, he earned a literary award from the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

. From 1955 to 1968 he continued his works as a professor of philosophy at the Sorbonne. He became a member of the Académie française in 1961.Jean Guitton Biography at the Académie française Website (French)
/ref> Invited as an observer to the

ecumenical council An ecumenical council, also called general council, is a meeting of bishops and other church authorities to consider and rule on questions of Christian doctrine, administration, discipline, and other matters in which those entitled to vote are ...

Vatican II The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilic ...

, the first

lay person In religious organizations, the laity () — individually a layperson, layman or laywoman — consists of all members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-ordained members of religious orders, e.g. a nun or a lay brother. ...

to be granted this honor, he would become a close friend of

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...

. He died in

at 97 in 1999. During his life, he was also awarded the Great Cross of the National Order of Merit, Commander of the

Légion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

and of the Arts and Letters Medal. In most of his works Jean Guitton writes about and discusses the agnostic confrontation between human

faith Faith is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept. In the context of religion, faith is " belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". According to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, faith has multiple definitions, inc ...

and human logic. He wrote around fifty books. Amongst others, Guitton influenced the Marxist philosopher

Louis Althusser Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher who studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. Althusser was a long-time member an ...

, who became a Catholic in his youth.

Works

* ''Portrait d'une mère'' (1933) * ''Le Temps et l'éternité chez Plotin et Saint Augustin'' (1933) * ''La Philosophie de Leibniz'' (1933) * ''Actualité de saint Augustin'' (1935) * ''La Pensée moderne et le catholicisme'' (1934-1950) * ''Perspectives'' (1934) * ''Newman et Renan'' (1938) * ''La Pensée de M. Loisy'' (1936) * ''Critique de la critique'' (1937) * ''Le Problème de la connaissance et de la pensée religieuse'' * ''Le Problème de Jésus et le fondement du témoignage chrétien'' (1946) * ''Développement des idées dans l'Ancien Testament'' (1947) * ''Portrait de M. Pouget'' (1941) * ''Justification du temps'' (1941) * ''Fondements de la communauté française'' (1942) * ''Journal de captivité 1942-1943'' (1942-1943) * ''Nouvel art de penser'' (1946) * ''Le Problème de Jésus'' (1946) * ''L'Amour humain'' (1948) * ''L'Existence temporelle'' (1949) * ''La Vierge Marie'' (1949) * ''Pascal et Leibniz'' (1951) * ''Le Travail intellectuel'' (1951) * ''Journal, études et rencontres'' (1959 et 1968) * ''L'Église et l'Évangile'' (1959) * ''La Vocation de Bergson'' (1960) * ''Une mère dans sa vallée'' (1961) * ''Regard sur le concile'' (1962) * ''Génie de Pascal'' (1962) * ''L'Église et les laïcs'' (1963) * ''La conversion de Ratisbonne'' (1964) * ''Le Clair et l'Obscur'' (1964) * ''Dialogues avec Paul VI'' (1967) * ''Développement de la pensée occidentale'' (1968) * ''Profils parallèles'' (1970) * ''Newman et Renan'' * ''Pascal et Leibniz'' * ''Teilhard et Bergson'' * ''Claudel et Heidegger'' * ''Ce que je crois'' (1971) * ''Paul VI et l'Année sainte'' (1974) * ''Écrire comme on se souvient'' (1974) * ''Remarques et réflexions sur l'Histoire'' (1976) * ''Journal de ma vie'' (1976) * ''Évangile et mystère du temps'' (1977) * ''L'Évangile dans ma vie'' (1978) * ''Paul VI secret'' (1980) * ''Le Temps d'une vie'' (1980) * ''Jugements'' (1981) * ''Pages brûlées'' (1984) * ''L'Absurde et le Mystère'' (1984) * ''Portrait de Marthe Robin'' (1985) * ''Œcuménisme'' (1986) * ''Un siècle, une vie''(1988), 13th Prix Fondation Pierre-Lafue 1989 * ''Dieu et la science'' (with Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff, 1991) * ''Portrait du père Lagrange'' (1992) * ''Celui qui croyait au ciel et celui qui n'y croyait pas'' (with Jacques Lanzmann, 1994) * ''Lumen de lumine'' (1994) * ''Le génie de Thérèse de Lisieux'' (1995) * ''Chaque jour que Dieu fait'' (1996) * ''Le Siècle qui s'annonce'' (1996) * ''Mon testament philosophique'' (1997) * ''Ultima Verba'' (with Gérard Prévost, 1998) * ''Le livre de la sagesse et des vertus retrouvées'' (1998)

References

External links

Jean Guitton Biography at the Académie française Website (French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guitton, Jean 1901 births 1999 deaths Writers from Saint-Étienne Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni École Normale Supérieure alumni Academic staff of the University of Paris French Roman Catholic writers Catholic philosophers 20th-century French philosophers Members of the Académie Française Members of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Commanders of the Legion of Honour Grand Cross of the Ordre national du Mérite French male writers 20th-century French Catholic theologians 20th-century French male writers