M O N O D G R A P H I E S

a website dedicated to the memory of Adolphe Monod (1802-1856)

Some introductory words

Adolphe Monod was a prominent preacher of the Réveil (awakening) movement which had a major influence on the Reformed Church of France during the first half of the nineteenth century. He is less known today, but he continues to have an impact, in particular within the evangelical movement.

I have been influenced by Monod’s sermons in an important phase of my personal spiritual development. My own preaching clearly bears the marks of what I have learnt from Monod. For years I have been collecting his texts, but also documents related to his family and his life, as well as homiletic studies on Monod and other documents allowing to better understand his time. I now wish to share these elements with the public, and I hope that they will allow some to get to know and to better understand the work of this great pulpit speaker, who also was a very lovable person and whose life reflects the great issues of his time.

Alas, the Reformed Church of France has finally chosen liberalism, and Monod’s ideas are hardly taught in its Temples today. The spiritual descendants of Monod are found in the various circles of the evangelical movement today.

It seems to me that Adolphe Monod is a witness both to the Reformed Church, which he never left, and to those who claim to descend from the Réveil. He invites the former to come back to the Scriptures and to a living spirituality, and the latter to develop high intellectual standards and an attitude that is open to their contemporaries.

This is perhaps why I cherish Adolphe Monod – because his person unites learnedness and spirituality, sensitivity towards his time and unwavering attachment to the Scriptures, combined with a certain frailty and a whiff of melancholy. I believe that the preachers of our time – which has some points in common with his – definitely should know the life and work of this remarkable disciple of Jesus-Christ.

NB: I have launched this website in December 2012. It is my intention to pursue its construction whenever I have time to do so. Should you wish to be informed of its progression, you may subscribe to e-mail updates on the sherpa blog monodetal.blogspot.com.

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