An accidental blog

"If God is sovereign, then his lordship must extend over all of life, and it cannot be restricted to the walls of the church or within the Christian orbit." Abraham Kuyper Common Grace 1.1.

Tuesday 5 June 2012

Pierre Courthial (1914-2009)

The French Reformed theologian Pierre Courthial was born in 1914. He studied theology at the Protestant Faculty of Theology (1932-1936) and then in 1937 entered the pastoral ministry in Lyon.  In 1938 he was a delegate to the synod of the Reformed Church of France.

He enjoyed pastoral ministry in the Ardèche and in Germany and then in 1951 became the pastor of the Eglise de l’Annociation in Passy, Paris. From there in 1974 he became the professor of apologetics, ethics and practical theology at the Free Faculty of Reformed Theology in Aix-en-Provence, an institution he helped establish. He taught their until his retirement.

In 1979 he was awarded a honorary doctorate from Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia. In retirement he continued to author several books many of them are being translated into English by Zurich Publishing.

He has written pieces in French on Groen van Prinsterer,  Herman Dooyeweerd and theonomy.

A talk he gave at the 50 year jubilee of WTS is available here.


Books being translated into English include:
Day of Small Beginnings 
Bible in the Bible

On-line articles (all in French)

MP3s online include the following, accessible from here about half way down:


  • L'avenir du protestantisme, une nouvelle réformation (15,8 M).
  • Une nouvelle réformation (11 M).
  • Origine, place et finalité de la Faculté libre de théologie réformée d'Aix-en-Provence (FLTR) (29 M). A l'occasion du 20e anniverssaire de la Faculté, en octobre 1994.
  • Le combat de la Foi réformée (9 M). Allocution prononcée lors du 10e anniversaire de la Faculté libre de théologie réformée d'Aix-en-Provence, en 1983.
  • L'Église, sel de la terre et lumière du monde (15.3 M). Causerie donnée lors de la journée annuelle de la société évangélique de Genève. Novembre 1987.
  • L'autorité de la Parole de Dieu (22.3 M).
  • Qu'est-ce qu'un pasteur ? (11,5 M). 18 avril 1985, au centre Guillaume Farel (Marseille).
  • La Bible, source de la morale et du droit.
  • La catholicité de la Loi de Dieu 1
  • La catholicité de la Loi de Dieu 2
  • La catholicité de la Loi de Dieu 3
  • La catholicité de la Loi de Dieu 4
  • La noutesie (ou doctrine de la cure d'âme).
  • La foi chrétienne et l'histoire .
  • La psychanalyse à la lumière de la Bible.
  • Le Conseil trinitaire 1Le Conseil trinitaire 2.
  • Cours de philosophie réformée.
  • Révolution ou Réformation
  • A special issue of La Revue Réformée 2010 no 253 was devoted to Courthial: 


    References
    http://www.vbru.net/src/theologiens/pw_courthial.htm
    http://www.wts.edu/stayinformed/view.html?id=456
    http://huguenotfellowship.org/newsletters/3

    1 comment:

    Matt Miller said...

    Thanks for this post highlighting the life and work of this remarkable servant of Christ. The English translation of Courthial's magnificent work, The Day of Small Beginnings (or literally Re-Beginnings), should be available by the end of 2013 through Zurich Publishing.