Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier (1851–1926)
Revisiting Old Themes and Exploring New Directions / Revisiter des thèmes anciens et explorer de nouvelles orientations
Paperback (Forthcoming)
(October 2026)
ISBN: 9782503627618
Price: $168.00
Bringing together contributions from leading scholars, this volume explores Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier’s role as intellectual, church leader, war hero, educational reformer, and pioneer of dialogue between faith and modernity.
In 2026, the centenary of the death of Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier, archbishop of Mechelen (1906–1926), will be commemorated. Mercier is regarded as an exceptionally multifaceted figure: a leading intellectual, a church leader of international stature, a war hero and a central figure in Belgian (church) history. During his lifetime, he aroused both admiration and opposition, a tension that continues to shape his historical legacy. This collection brings together a series of innovative and critical contributions that re-examine both well-known and less-studied aspects of his life, work and influence. Together, they open up new perspectives on a complex figure: Mercier was a determined strategist who tirelessly sought ways to reconcile the Church with modernity. He combined intellectual passion and spiritual ambition with a pronounced sense of hierarchy and authority. His conduct was often courageous and visionary, yet at the same time elitist, authoritarian and, in certain respects, ambiguous.Contrary to the image of a staunch prélat d’avant-garde that has long been associated to him, this book presents him rather as a perceptive, culturally pessimistic and conservative church leader, who carefully and strategically explored how modernity could, in fact, be harnessed in the service of the Church and the faith.
Other Titles in this Series
Hoghe minne es deen vor dander
Essays on the Christian Mystical Tradition in Honour of Rob Faesen SJ
Volume 122
Nouveaux regards sur l’avouerie
Les avoues des abbayes et des sieges episcopaux entre Loire et Rhin (fin IXe - milieu XIIIe siecle)
Volume 121
De canonicis qui seculares dicuntur
Treize siecles de chapitres seculiers dans les anciens Pays-Bas. Thirteen Centuries of Chapters of Secular Canons in the Low Countries
Volume 105
The Controversy over Integralism in Germany, Italy and France during the Pontificate of Pius X (1903-1914)
Volume 116
Pulchritudo tam antiqua et tam nova
Studies in History of Christianity in Honour of Mathijs Lamberigts / Etudes d'histoire du christianisme en l'honneur de M. Lamberigts
Volume 107
Produire et publier de la theologie dans le monde catholique
Des Restaurations a Vatican II
Volume 118
Taize, une parabole d’unite
Histoire de la communaute des origines au concile de jeunes [trad. francaise de l'italien Storia della comunita dalle origini al concilio dei giovani]
Volume 108
Les martyrs oublies?
Les missionnaires dans la tempete de la rebellion des Simbas au Congo en 1964-1966
Volume 100
Un age d’or des chapitres nobles de chanoinesses en Europe au XVIIIe siecle
Le cas de la Franche-Comte
Volume 109
Science, philosophie et theologie chez Edouard Le Roy
La controverse autour de Qu'est-ce qu'un dogme ? (1905-1907)
Volume 97
Les jesuites francais dans la tourmente (1949-1951)
Rapports Dhanis, affaire de Fourviere et encyclique Humani generis
Volume 117
Verso l’ Ut Omnes – Towards Ut Omnes
Vie, luoghi e protagonisti dell'ecumenismo cattolico prima del Vaticano II - Ways, places and protagonists of Catholic ecumenism before Vatican II
Volume 110
Les debuts de l’Institut superieur de philosophie (Louvain) a travers la correspondance de Desire Mercier avec le Saint-Siege (1887-1904)
Volume 96
Histoire litteraire des benedictins de Saint-Maur
Tome Cinquieme : Abbayes - Index Nominum
Volume 103
La theologie catholique entre intransigeance et renouveau
La reception des mouvements preconciliaires a Vatican II
Volume 95
Vatican I, Infallible or Neglectable?
Historical and Theological Approaches to the Event and Reception of the First Vatican Council
Volume 113
The Quintessence of Lives
Intellectual Biographies in the Low Countries presented to Jan Roegiers
Volume 91
A Cathedral of Constitutional Law
Essays on the Earliest Constitutions of the Order of Preachers, with an English Translation of Fr Antoninus H. Thomas's 1965 Study
Volume 112
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