Author: Gendet, Gérard

Source: Aries, Volume 10, Number 2, 2010 , pp. 233-269(37)

Publisher: BRILL

Abstract:

Jean-Baptiste Willermoz (1730-1824), a freemason and Christian theosopher, was the main founder of a famous Masonic Rite (the Rite Ecossais Rectifié—Rectified Scottish Rite) that is still extant. A disciple of Martines de Pasqually, he was also a close friend of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, the “Unknown philosopher”, and developed religious views that stand within the pale of the so-called “illuminist” current of the late 18th and early 19th century. Indeed, his Treatise on the two Natures (a text preserved in manuscript in the Library of the Grand Orient of the Netherlands in The Hague, and in the City Library of Lyons), is strongly indebted to Christian theosophy. In addition to various moral considerations, as well as reflections on the symbolism of the Cross, it deals with the mystery of Incarnation and the “double nature” of Jesus Christ. After an introduction, which presents the scholarly commentaries already devoted to this text and discusses the question of why Willermoz might have been induced to write this short text, the first part of the article focuses on the figure of Jesus Christ in the Treatise—in particular: his human nature, his divine nature (and the interest of distinguishing between both), his progressive revelation, passion, and resurrection. It further tries to make out what distinguishes Willermoz' own inspiration from the tenets of Pasqually's doctrine on the one hand, and the teachings of the Church on the other hand. It also brings out a number of commonalities of the Treatise with some religious traditions of the early centuries of the Common Era that Willermoz may have been aware of. The second part is devoted to “the paradigmatic value of the divine incarnation” according to our author. In the third one, we try to explain how Willermoz, a theosopher who claimed to be a strict Catholic, nonetheless managed to develop a Christology of his own. Finally, a comparison is drawn between Willermoz's Treatise and the Instruction secrète des Grands Profès (Secret Instruction of the “Grand Profès”), of which he had been the main author and to which freemasons who had reached the highest degree of the Rectified Scottish Order had access. In closing, we argue that this comparison brings out a striking similarity between the figure of Jesus-Christ and the mythic figure of Master Hiram in some degrees of that Order.

Keywords: WILLERMOZ; JEAN-BAPTISTE; MARTINES DE PASQUALLY; SAINT-MARTIN; LOUIS-CLAUDE DE; JESUS CHRIST; FREEMASONRY; RECTIFIED SCOTTISH RITE; CHRISTIAN THEOSOPHY; CHRISTOLOGY

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156798910X520610

Affiliations: 1: Auditeur à l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Section Sciences Religieuses

Publication date: 2010-07-01

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