Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 85:1 (Spring 2023)
Article: The Forgotten Vinet, Pastoral Theologian
Author: William Edgar

WTJ 85:1 (Spring 2023) p. 149

The Forgotten Vinet, Pastoral Theologian

William Edgar

William Edgar is Professor Emeritus of Apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary and Professeur Associé at the Faculté Jean Calvin in Aix-en-Provence.

Alexandre Rodolphe Vinet (June 17, 1797–May 4, 1847) was considered the preeminent Francophone professor of pastoral theology in his day, and his reputation continued right up until about 1960. His book Théologie pastorale (Pastoral Theology) was the principal required text in French-speaking Protestant seminaries for at least a century.1 His Homilétique ou théorie de la prédication (Homiletics, or Theory of Preaching) was until recently one of the primary manuals on homiletics.2

Immediately, though, we encounter certain oddities about this status. First, Vinet never really wrote a book either on pastoral theology or on homiletics! He did produce abundant materials on these subjects that were eventually gathered into anthologies. They became classics, especially the anthology on pastoral theology. As such they were required reading for all future pastors of Reformed churches in Switzerland and beyond. A minor historiographical problem is whether he would have agreed with all the choices made, but we will look at that shortly.

A second, even more striking oddity is that Vinet never led a parish as its pastor. That was not for lack of opportunities. We will tell his story below. He was ordained upon his arrival in Basel, where he helped out in the French-speaking Reformed church. But his principal calling in that city was to teach French and French literature at the local public school. Later, he was appointed Professor of Pastoral Theology at the Académie in Lausanne. Again, though, he never actually pastored a congregation.

The primary reason he is now forgotten is not because of a lack of depth in his work but possibly because after two world wars, after the rise of Freudian

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psychology, after the romantic style ceased to be in vogue, he was relegated to the past. Some history books affirm that he was the greatest Francophone thinker of the nineteenth century, at least in theology and literature, but to many his output is considered largely passé. The purpose of this article is to bring to light some of his contributions in the areas of pastoral theology and preaching, which still merit our attention.

I. The European Restoration

Though born three years from the end of the eighteenth century, Vinet was entirely a child of the early ninet...