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{{short description|French philosopher and orientalist (1823–1892)}}
{{for|the ship|French cruiser Ernest Renan}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| region           = [[Western philosophy]]
| era              = [[19th-century philosophy]]
| image            = Ernest Renan 1876-84.jpg
| caption          = Ernest Renan {{Circa|1870s}}
| alt              = A black and white photograph of Renan
| name             = Ernest Renan
| birth_name       = Joseph Ernest Renan
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|df=yes|1823|2|28}}
| birth_place      = [[Tréguier]], Kingdom of France
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1892|10|2|1823|2|28}}
| death_place      = [[Paris]], French Third Republic
| school_tradition = [[Continental philosophy]]
| main_interests   = [[History of religion]], [[philosophy of religion]], [[political philosophy]]
| notable_ideas    = [[Civic nationalism]]<ref>Ernest Renan. "[[What is a Nation?]]", 1882; cf. Chaim Gans, ''The Limits of Nationalism'', Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 11.</ref>
| notable_works    = ''Life of Jesus'' (1863)<br/> ''[[What Is a Nation?]]'' (1882)
| signature        =  Signature of Ernest Renan.svg
}}
'''Joseph Ernest Renan''' ({{IPAc-en|r|ə|ˈ|n|ɑː|n}};<ref>{{Cite Merriam-Webster|Renan}}</ref> {{IPA|fr|ʒozɛf ɛʁnɛst ʁənɑ̃|lang}}; 27 February 1823{{snd}}2 October 1892)<ref>{{wsPSM|Notes & Obituary Notes|42|December 1892}}</ref> was a French [[Oriental studies|Orientalist]] and [[Semitic studies|Semitic scholar]], writing on [[Semitic languages]] and [[Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples|civilizations]], [[historian of religion]], [[philologist]], [[philosopher]], [[biblical scholar]], and [[Biblical criticism|critic]].<ref name="Römer">{{cite speech |last=Römer |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Römer |title=Homage to Ernest Renan: Renan's historical and critical exegesis of the Bible |event=Symposium |date=11 October 2012 |location=Amphithéâtre Marguerite de Navarre-Marcelin Berthelot |publisher=[[Collège de France]] |url=https://www.college-de-france.fr/site/en-colloque-2012/symposium-2012-10-11-16h00.htm |access-date=31 August 2020}}</ref> He wrote works on the [[Origins of Christianity|origins]] of [[early Christianity]],<ref name="Römer"/> and espoused popular political theories especially concerning [[nationalism]], [[national identity]], and the [[Scientific racism|superiority]] of White people over other human races.<ref name="Césaire-2000" />  Renan is among the first scholars to advance the debunked<ref>{{cite web |author=<!--Not stated--> |url=https://en.huji.ac.il/en/article/22007 |title=Did the Khazars Convert to Judaism? New Research Says 'No' |date=26 June 2014 |website=en.huji.ac.il |publisher=[[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] |access-date=31 August 2020}}</ref>{{better source|date=June 2025}} [[Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry|Khazar theory]], which held that [[Ashkenazi Jews]] were descendants of the [[Khazars]],<ref name="Stampfer">{{cite journal |last=Stampfer |first=Shaul |author-link=Shaul Stampfer |date=Summer 2013 |title=Did the Khazars Convert to Judaism? |journal=Jewish Social Studies |volume=19 |issue=3 |location=[[Bloomington, Indiana]] |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |pages=1–72 |doi=10.2979/jewisocistud.19.3.1|s2cid=161320785 }}</ref> Turkic peoples who had [[Conversion to Judaism|adopted the Jewish religion]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Feldman |first=Alex Mesibov |date=2023 |editor-last=Raffensperger |editor-first=Christian |title=How Medieval Europe was Ruled |publisher=Routledge |pages=41–52 |chapter=Chapter 4: Khazaria: The Exception Which Proves the Rules |doi=10.4324/9781003213239-4 |isbn=978-1032100166}}</ref> and allegedly migrated to central and eastern Europe following the collapse of their [[khanate]].<ref name="Stampfer" /> On this basis he alleged that the Jews were "an incomplete race."  

==Life==
===Birth and family===
[[File:Maison Musée Ernest Renan Tréguier.jpg|thumb|Ernest Renan birthplace museum in [[Tréguier]]]]
He was born at [[Tréguier]] in [[Brittany]] to a family of fishermen.<ref>Kaufmann, Alfred (1924). "Renan: The Man," ''The Catholic Historical Review'', Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 388–398.</ref> His grandfather, having made a small fortune with his fishing [[smack (ship)|smack]], bought a house at Tréguier and settled there, and his father, captain of a small [[Cutter (boat)|cutter]] and an ardent [[republicanism|republican]], married the daughter of a Royalist tradesman from the neighbouring town of [[Lannion]]. All his life, Renan was aware of the conflict between his father's and his mother's political beliefs. He was five years old when his father died, and his sister, [[Henriette Renan|Henriette]], twelve years his senior, became the moral head of the household. Having in vain attempted to keep a school for girls at Tréguier, she departed and went to [[Paris, France|Paris]] as a teacher in a young ladies' boarding-school.<ref name=EB1911/>

===Education===
Ernest was educated in the ecclesiastical seminary of his native town.<ref>Loth, Joseph (1892). "Renan au Collège de Tréguier," ''Annales de Bretagne'' '''8''' (1), pp. 124–9.</ref><ref name=EB1911/> His school reports describe him as "docile, patient, diligent, painstaking, thorough". While the priests taught him mathematics and Latin, his mother completed his education. Renan's mother was half [[Breton people|Breton]]. Her paternal ancestors came from [[Bordeaux]], and Renan used to say that in his own nature, the [[Gascony|Gascon]] and the Breton were constantly at odds.<ref>[[René Galand|Galand, René]] (1959). ''L'Âme Celtique de Renan''. Presses Universitaires de France.</ref><ref name=EB1911/>

During the summer of 1838, Renan won all the prizes at the college of Tréguier. His sister told the doctor of the school in Paris where she taught about her brother, and he informed [[Félix Dupanloup|F. A. P. Dupanloup]], who was involved in organizing the ecclesiastical college of [[Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet]], a school in which the young Catholic nobility and the most talented pupils of the Catholic seminaries were to be educated together, with the idea of creating friendships between the aristocracy and the priesthood. Dupanloup sent for Renan, who was then fifteen years old and had never been outside [[Brittany]]. "I learned with stupor that knowledge was not a privilege of the Church ... I awoke to the meaning of the words talent, fame, celebrity." Religion seemed to him wholly different in Tréguier and in Paris.<ref name=EB1911/> He came to view Abbé Dupanloup as a father figure.<ref name=Theiss>{{Cite web |url=https://marginalia.lareviewofbooks.org/pale-galilean-ernest-renan-jesus-modern-history/ |title=Theiss, Will. "The Pale Galilean: Ernest Renan, Jesus, and Modern History", ''Marginalia'', Los Angeles Review of Books, March 16, 2018 |access-date=15 May 2019 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926140416/https://marginalia.lareviewofbooks.org/pale-galilean-ernest-renan-jesus-modern-history/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Study at Issy-les-Moulineaux===
In 1840, Renan left St Nicholas to study philosophy at the [[Saint-Sulpice Seminary (Issy-les-Moulineaux)|seminary of Issy-les-Moulineaux]]. He entered with a passion for Catholic [[scholasticism]]. Among the philosophers, [[Thomas Reid]] and [[Nicolas Malebranche]] first attracted him, and, then he turned to [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|G. W. F. Hegel]], [[Immanuel Kant]] and [[Johann Gottfried von Herder|J. G. Herder]].<ref name=Theiss/> Renan began to see a contradiction between the [[metaphysics]] which he studied and the faith he professed, but an appetite for verifiable truths restrained his scepticism. "Philosophy excites and only half satisfies the appetite for truth; I am eager for mathematics", he wrote to Henriette. Henriette had accepted in the family of Count [[Zamoyski]] an engagement more lucrative than her former job. She exercised the strongest influence over her brother.<ref name=EB1911/>

===Study at college of St Sulpice===
It was not mathematics but [[philology]] which was to settle Renan's gathering doubts. His course completed at Issy, in 1844 he entered the college of St Sulpice in order to take his degree in philology prior to entering the church, and, here, he began the study of Hebrew.  He realized that the second part of the ''[[Book of Isaiah]]'' differs from the first not only in style but in date, that the grammar and the history of the ''[[Pentateuch]]'' are later than the time of [[Moses]], and that the ''[[Book of Daniel]]'' is clearly written centuries after the time in which it is set. At night he read the new novels of [[Victor Hugo]]; by day, he studied Hebrew and Syriac under [[Arthur-Marie Le Hir]].<ref name=Theiss/> In October 1845, Renan left St Sulpice for Stanislas, a lay college of the [[Oratory (worship)|Oratorians]]. Still feeling too much under the domination of the church, he reluctantly ended the last of his associations with religious life and entered M. Crouzet's school for boys as a teacher.<ref name=EB1911/>

===Scholarly career===
[[File:Joseph Ernest Renan, by F. Mulnier.jpg|thumb|200px|Portrait of Joseph Ernest Renan, by F. Mulnier]]
Renan, educated by priests, was to accept the scientific ideal with an extraordinary expansion of all his faculties. He became ravished by the splendor of the cosmos. At the end of his life, he wrote of [[Henri-Frédéric Amiel|Amiel]], "The man who has time to keep a private diary has never understood the immensity of the universe." The certitudes of physical and natural science were revealed to Renan in 1846 by the chemist [[Marcellin Berthelot]], then a young man of eighteen, his pupil at M. Crouzet's school. To the day of Renan's death, their friendship continued. Renan was occupied as usher only during evenings. During the daytime, he continued his researches in [[Semitic languages|Semitic philology]]. In 1847, he obtained the [[Volney prize]], one of the principal distinctions awarded by the [[Academy of Inscriptions]], for the manuscript of his "General History of Semitic Languages." In 1847, he took his degree as ''Agrégé de Philosophie'' – that is to say, fellow of the university – and was offered a job as master in the ''lycée'' [[Vendôme]].<ref name=EB1911/>

In 1856, Renan married in Paris Cornélie Scheffer, daughter of [[Hendrik Scheffer]] and niece of [[Ary Scheffer]], both French painters of Dutch descent. They had two children, [[Ary Renan]], born in 1858, who became a painter, and Noémi, born in 1862, who eventually married philologist [[Yannis Psycharis]]. In 1863, the [[American Philosophical Society]] elected him an international Member.<ref>{{cite web |title=Joseph Ernest Renan |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Ernest+Renan&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |website=American Philosophical Society Member History Database |access-date=17 February 2021}}</ref>

====''Life of Jesus''====
Within his lifetime, Renan was best known as the author of the enormously popular ''Life of Jesus'' (''Vie de Jésus'', 1863).<ref>Wright, Terence R. (1994). "The Letter and the Spirit: Deconstructing Renan's "Life of Jesus" and the Assumptions of Modernity," ''Religion & Literature'', Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 55–71.</ref><ref>Pitt, Alan (2000). "The Cultural Impact of Science in France: Ernest Renan and the Vie de Jésus," ''The Historical Journal'', Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 79–101.</ref> Renan attributed the idea of the book to his sister, Henriette, with whom he was traveling in [[Ottoman Syria|Ottoman Syria and Palestine]] when, struck with a fever, she died suddenly.  With only a [[New Testament]] and copy of [[Josephus]] as references, he began writing.<ref>Hammerton, J. A. (1937). ''Outline of Great Books'', New York: Wise & Co., p. 998.</ref> The book was first translated into English in the year of its publication by [[Charles E. Wilbour]] and has remained in print for the past 145 years.<ref>As of this writing, [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/24540192/editions?editionsView=true&start_edition=1&se=yr&sd=asc&qt=sort_yr_asc WorldCat reports 115 different editions] of the book [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/24540192&referer=brief_results in 1426 different libraries].</ref> Renan's ''Life of Jesus'' was lavished with ironic praise and criticism by [[Albert Schweitzer]] in his book ''[[The Quest of the Historical Jesus]]''.<ref>Baird, William (1992). ''History of New Testament Research: From Deism to Tubingen''. Augsburg: Fortress Press, p. 382.</ref>

Renan argued Jesus was able to purify himself of "Jewish traits" and that he became an [[Aryan]]. His ''Life of Jesus'' promoted racial ideas and infused race into theology and the person of Jesus; he depicted Jesus as a [[Galilee|Galilea]]n who was transformed from a Jew into a Christian, and that Christianity emerged purified of any Jewish influences.<ref name="Heschel2008">{{cite book|author=Susannah Heschel|title=The Aryan Jesus: christian theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fiCJeNJIhoAC&pg=PA34|access-date=31 May 2013|year=2008|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-12531-2|page=34–}}</ref> The book was based largely on the Gospel of John, and was a scholarly work.<ref name="Heschel2008"/>  It depicted Jesus as a man but not God, and rejected the miracles of the Gospel.<ref name="Heschel2008"/> Renan believed by humanizing Jesus he was restoring to him a greater dignity.<ref>Chadbourne, Richard M. (1968). ''Ernest Renan''. New York: Twayne Publishers, p. 68.</ref> The book's controversial assertions that the [[Historical Jesus|life of Jesus]] should be written like the life of any historic person, and that the Bible could and should be subject to the same critical scrutiny as other historical documents caused controversy<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/dublinreview27unkngoog#page/n396/mode/2up "Renan's 'Vie de Jesus',"] ''The Dublin Review'' '''2''', January/April 1864, pp. 386–419.</ref> and enraged many Christians<ref>Jules Théodose Loyson ''[https://archive.org/details/uneprtenduevied00loysgoog Une prétendue Vie de Jésus, ou M. Ernest Renan, historien, philosophe et poëte]'' (Paris, Douniol, 1863)</ref><ref>Cochin, Augustin (1863). ''[https://archive.org/details/quelquesmotssur00cochgoog Quelques mots sur la Vie de Jésus de M. Ernest Renan]''. Paris: Douniol.</ref><ref>''[https://archive.org/details/instructionpast00plangoog Instruction pastorale de Monseigneur l'évêque de Nîmes au clergé de son diocèse contre un ouvrage intitulé "Vie de Jésus" par Ernest Renan]'' (1863)</ref><ref>Several of the books of [[Henri-Joseph Crelier]] have polemical titles naming Renan.</ref> and Jews because of its depiction of Judaism as foolish and absurdly illogical and for its insistence that Jesus and Christianity were superior.<ref name="Heschel2008"/>

American historian [[George Mosse]], in ''Toward the Final Solution. A History of European Racism'' (pp 88, 129–130) argues that according to Renan, the intolerance would be a Jewish and not a Christian characteristic, but biblical Judaism would have lost its importance even among the Jews themselves as civilization progressed. That is why modern Jews are no longer disadvantaged by their past and are able to make important contributions to modern progress.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Toward the Final Solution. A History of European Racism |last=Mosse |first=George |publisher=Harper & Row |date=1980 |page=130}}</ref>

===Continuation of scholarly career: social views===
In his book on [[Paul of Tarsus|St. Paul]], as in the [[Apostles in the New Testament|Apostles]], he shows his concern with the larger social life, his sense of fraternity, and a revival of the democratic sentiment which had inspired ''L'Avenir de la Science''. In 1869, he presented himself as the candidate of the liberal opposition at the parliamentary election for [[Meaux]]. While his temper had become less aristocratic, his liberalism had grown more tolerant. On the eve of its dissolution, Renan was half prepared to accept the Empire, and, had he been elected to the Chamber of Deputies, he would have joined the group of ''l'Empire liberal'', but he was not elected. A year later, war was declared with Germany; the Empire was abolished, and [[Napoleon III of France|Napoleon III]] became an exile. The [[Franco-Prussian War]] was a turning-point in Renan's history. Germany had always been to him the asylum of thought and disinterested science. Now, he saw the land of his ideal destroy and ruin the land of his birth; he beheld the German no longer as a priest, but as an invader.<ref name=EB1911/>
[[File:ErnestRenan.jpg|thumb|left|Ernest Renan in his study by [[Anders Zorn]]]]

In ''La Réforme Intellectuelle et Morale'' (1871), Renan tried to safeguard France's future. Yet, he was still influenced by Germany. The ideal and the discipline which he proposed to his defeated country were those of her conqueror—a feudal society, a monarchical government, an elite which the rest of the nation exists merely to support and nourish; an ideal of honor and duty imposed by a chosen few on the recalcitrant and subject multitude. The errors attributed to the ''Commune'' confirmed Renan in this reaction. At the same time, the irony always perceptible in his work grows more bitter. His ''Dialogues Philosophiques'', written in 1871, his ''[[Ecclesiastes]]'' (1882) and his ''Antichrist'' (1876) (the fourth volume of the ''Origins of Christianity'', dealing with the reign of [[Nero]]) are incomparable in their literary genius, but they are examples of a disenchanted and sceptical temper. He had vainly tried to make his country obey his precepts. The progress of events showed him, on the contrary, a France which, every day, left a little stronger, and he roused himself from his disbelieving, disillusioned mood and observed with interest the struggle for justice and liberty of a democratic society. The fifth and sixth volumes of the ''Origins of Christianity'' (the Christian Church and [[Marcus Aurelius]]) show him reconciled with democracy, confident in the gradual ascent of man, aware that the greatest catastrophes do not really interrupt the sure if imperceptible progress of the world and reconciled, also, if not with the truths, at least with the moral beauties of Catholicism and with the remembrance of his pious youth.<ref name=EB1911/>

====Definition of nationhood====
Renan's definition of a [[nation-state|nation]] has been extremely influential. This was given in his 1882 discourse ''[[What is a Nation?|Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?]]'' ("What is a Nation?"). Whereas German writers like [[Fichte]] had defined the nation by [[objectivity (philosophy)|objective]] criteria such as a [[Race (classification of human beings)|race]] or an [[ethnic group]] "sharing common characteristics" (language, etc.), Renan defined it by the desire of a people to live together, which he summarized by a famous phrase, "having done great things together and wishing to do more".{{efn|"{{langx|fr|avoir fait de grandes choses ensemble, vouloir en faire encore}}"}} Writing in the midst of the dispute concerning the [[Alsace-Lorraine]] region, he declared that the existence of a nation was based on a "daily [[plebiscite]]." Some authors criticize that definition, based on a "daily plebiscite", because of the ambiguity of the concept. They argue that this definition is an idealization and it should be interpreted within the German tradition and not in opposition to it. They say that the arguments used by Renan at the conference '' What is a Nation? '' are not consistent with his thinking.<ref>[[Joxe Azurmendi|Azurmendi, Joxe]] ''. Historia, arraza, nazioa ''. Donostia: Elkar, 2014. {{ISBN|978-84-9027-297-8}}</ref>

[[Karl Deutsch]] (in "Nationalism and its alternatives") wrote "'A Nation,' so goes a rueful European saying, 'is a group of persons united by a common error about their ancestry and a common dislike of their neighbors.'"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Deutsch |first=Karl |title=Nationalism and Its Alternatives |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. |year=1969 |location=USA |pages=3}}</ref> This phrase is frequently, but mistakenly, attributed to Renan himself. He did indeed write that if "the essential element of a nation is that all its individuals must have many things in common", they "must also have forgotten many things. Every French citizen must have forgotten the [[St. Bartholomew's Day massacre|night of St. Bartholomew]] and the [[Albigensian Crusade|massacres in the 13th century in the South]]."

Renan believed "Nations are not eternal. They had a beginning and they will have an end. And they will probably be replaced by a European confederation".<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://mondediplo.com/1999/06/05thiesse | title=Inventing national identity| date=June 1999}}</ref>

Renan's work has especially influenced 20th-century theorist of nationalism [[Benedict Anderson]].

===Late scholarly career===
[[File:Renan in his Study in the College of France.jpg|thumb|Renan in his study in the College of France]]
[[File:Caricature of Ernest Renan, Vanity Fair.jpg|right|thumb|Renan caricatured by GUTH in [[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]], 1910]]
Shifting away from his pessimism regarding liberalism's prospects during the 1870s while still believing in the necessity of an intellectual elite to influence democratic society for the good, Renan rallied to support the [[French Third Republic]], humorously describing himself as a ''légitimiste'', that is, a person who needs "about ten years to accustom myself to regarding any government as legitimate," and adding "I, who am not a republican ''a priori'', who am a simple Liberal quite willing to adjust myself to a constitutional monarchy, would be more loyal to the Republic than newly converted republicans."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lee |first1=David C. J. |title=Ernest Renan |date=1996 |publisher=Ardent Media |pages=97–99}}</ref> The progress of the sciences under the Republic and the latitude given to the freedom of thought that Renan cherished above all had allayed many of his previous fears, and he opposed the deterministic and fatalist theories of philosophers like [[Hippolyte Taine]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lee |first1=David C. J. |title=Ernest Renan |date=1996 |publisher=Ardent Media |pages=96}}</ref>

As he got older, he contemplated his childhood. He was nearly sixty when, in 1883, he published the autobiographical ''Souvenirs d'Enfance et de Jeunesse'' which, after the ''Life of Jesus'', is the work by which he is chiefly known.<ref name=EB1911/>

They showed the blasé modern reader that a world no less poetic, no less primitive than that of the ''Origins of Christianity'' still existed within living memory on the northwestern coast of France. It has the [[Celt]]ic magic of ancient romance and the simplicity, the naturalness, and the veracity which the 19th century prized so highly. But his ''Ecclesiastes'', published a few months earlier, his ''Drames Philosophiques'', collected in 1888, give a more adequate image of his fastidious critical, disenchanted, yet optimistic spirit. They show the attitude towards uncultured Socialism of a philosopher liberal by conviction, by temperament an aristocrat. We learn in them how [[Caliban (character)|Caliban]] (democracy), the mindless brute, educated to his own responsibility, makes after all an adequate ruler; how [[Prospero]] (the aristocratic principle or the mind) accepts his dethronement for the sake of greater liberty in the intellectual world, since Caliban proves an effective policeman and leaves his superiors a free hand in the laboratory; how [[Ariel (Shakespeare)|Ariel]] (the religious principle) acquires a firmer hold on life and no longer gives up the ghost at the faintest hint of change. Indeed, Ariel flourishes in the service of Prospero under the external government of the many-headed brute. Religion and knowledge are as imperishable as the world they dignify. Thus, out of the depths rises unvanquished the essential [[idealism]] of Renan.<ref name=EB1911/>

Renan was prolific. At sixty years of age, having finished the ''Origins of Christianity'', he began his ''History of [[Israel]]'', based on a lifelong study of the ''[[Old Testament]]'' and on the ''[[Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum]]'', published by the [[Académie des Inscriptions]] under Renan's direction from the year 1881 till the end of his life. The first volume of the ''History of Israel'' appeared in 1887; the third, in 1891; the last two posthumously. As a history of facts and theories, the book has many faults; as an essay on the evolution of the religious idea, it is (despite some passages of frivolity, irony, or incoherence) of extraordinary importance; as a reflection of the mind of Renan, it is the most lifelike of images. In a volume of collected essays, ''Feuilles Détachées'', published also in 1891, we find the same mental attitude, an affirmation of the necessity of [[piety]] independent of [[dogma]]. During his last years, he received many honors, and was made an administrator of the [[Collège de France]] and grand officer of the [[Legion of Honor]]. Two volumes of the ''History of Israel'', his correspondence with his sister Henriette, his ''Letters to M. Berthelot'', and the ''History of the Religious Policy of [[Philip IV of France|Philippe-le-Bel]]'', which he wrote in the years immediately before his marriage, all appeared during the last eight years of the 19th century.<ref name=EB1911/>

Renan died after a few days' illness in 1892 in Paris,<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|wstitle=Renan, Ernest|volume=23|pages=93–95|inline=1|first=Agnes Mary Frances|last=Duclaux|author-link=Agnes Mary Frances Duclaux}}</ref> and was buried in the [[Cimetière de Montmartre]] in the [[Montmartre Quarter]].

==Reputation and controversies==
Hugely influential in his lifetime, Renan was eulogised after his death as the embodiment of the progressive spirit in western culture. [[Anatole France]] wrote that Renan was the incarnation of modernity. Renan's works were read and appreciated by many of the leading literary figures of the time, including [[James Joyce]], [[Marcel Proust]], [[Matthew Arnold]], [[Edith Wharton]], and [[Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Singley |first1=Carol J. |title=Race, culture, nation: Edith Wharton and Ernest Renan |journal=Twentieth Century Literature |date=2003 |volume=49 |issue=1 |page=32|doi=10.1215/0041462X-2003-2003 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Richard |title=James Joyce and Sexuality |date=1988 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=130}}</ref> Renan’s interpretations of history become the subject of frequent [[Polemic|polemical]] sniping in [[Jacob Burckhardt|Jacob Burckhardt’s]] lectures at [[University of Basel|Basel University]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burckhardt |first=Jacob |title=On History & Historians (Lecture notes <i>Historische Fragmente</i>) |publisher=Harper Torchbooks |year=1865–1885 |location=New York |publication-date=1965 |translator-last=Zohn |translator-first=Harry}}</ref> also receiving sustained and acid criticism from his (posthumously better-known) colleague and faculty member at Basel in [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche’s]] later works where Renan appears as a go-to exemplar of [[Ressentiment|''ressentiment'']].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shapiro |first=Gary |date=1982 |title=Nietzsche Contra Renan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2505244 |journal=History and Theory |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=193–222 |doi=10.2307/2505244 |jstor=2505244 |issn=0018-2656|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>Re: ''Genealogy of Morals, The Antichrist, The Will to Power'' etc. </ref> One of his greatest admirers was [[Manuel González Prada]] in [[Peru]] who took the ''Life of Jesus'' as a basis for his anticlericalism. In his 1932 document "[[The Doctrine of Fascism]]", Italian dictator [[Benito Mussolini]] also applauded perceived "prefascist intuitions" in a section of Renan's "Meditations" that argued against democracy and individual rights as "[[Chimera (mythology)|chimerical]]" and intrinsically opposed to "nature's plans".<ref>[http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Germany/mussolini.htm The Doctrine of Fascism by Benito Mussolini] Complete text of the essay "''Dottrina''" (Doctrines).</ref>

===Statue===
[[File:Renan12.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Statue of Ernest Renan in Tréguier town square]]
In 1903 a major controversy accompanied the installation of a monument in Tréguier designed by [[Jean Boucher (artist)|Jean Boucher]]. Placed in the local cathedral square, it was interpreted as a challenge to Catholicism, and led to widespread protests, especially because the site was normally used for the temporary pulpit erected at the traditional Catholic festival of the [[Pardon (ceremony)|Pardon of St Yves]]. It also included the Greek goddess [[Athena]] raising her arm to crown Renan gesturing in apparent challenge towards the cathedral.<ref>[http://www.jeanboucher.net/?d=monuments&p=ernest_renan Ernest Renan à Tréguier]</ref><ref>Catalogue, ''Ernest Renan (1823–1892) un Celte en Orient'', Musée d'Art et d'histoire, Musée de Bretagne, 1992, Ville de Saint-Brieuc, Ville de Rennes.</ref> The local clergy organised a protest [[Calvary (sculpture)|calvary sculpture]] designed by [[Yves Hernot]] as "a symbol of the triumphant [[ultramontane|ultramontaine]] church."

===Views on race===
Renan believed that racial characteristics were instinctual and [[deterministic]].<ref>[[Maurice Olender|Olender, Maurice]] (1992). ''The Languages of Paradise: Race, Religion, and Philology in the Nineteenth Century''. Harvard University Press.</ref><ref name="Heschel20081">{{cite book|author=Susannah Heschel|title=The Aryan Jesus: christian theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fiCJeNJIhoAC&pg=PA34|access-date=31 May 2013|year=2008|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-12531-2|page=30–}}</ref> Renan believed that the [[Semitic race]] was inferior to the [[Aryan race]].<ref>"I am therefore the first to recognize that the Semitic race, compared to the Indo-European race, truly represents an inferior combination of human nature."—Arvidsson, Stefan (2006). ''Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science''. University of Chicago Press, p. 107.</ref> Renan claimed that the Semitic mind was limited by dogmatism and lacked a cosmopolitan conception of civilisation.<ref>"The Racial Motif in Renan's Attitude to Jews and Judaism", in: S. Almog (ed.), ''Antisemitism Through the Ages'', Oxford, 1988, pp. 255–278.</ref> For Renan, Semites were "an incomplete race."<ref>[http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1603&letter=A#4621 Anti-Semitism, by Gotthard Deutsch, ''Jewish Encyclopedia'']</ref> Some authors argue that Renan developed his antisemitism from [[Voltaire]]'s anti-Judaism.<ref>[[Joxe Azurmendi|Azurmendi, Joxe]] (2014). ''Historia, arraza, nazioa. Renan eta nazionalismoaren inguruko topiko batzuk  '' (History, race, nation. Renan and some clichés about nationalism). Donostia: Elkar. pp. 177–186. {{ISBN|978-84-9027-297-8}}</ref> [[Hannah Arendt]] wrote that Renan was probably the first to characterize the Semitic and Aryan races as being in opposition to each other in an essential division of mankind.<ref>Hannah Arendt. ''[https://cheirif.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/hannah-arendt-the-origins-of-totalitarianism-meridian-1962.pdf Origins of Totalitarianism]'' (1955). 1962 edition, page 174. 

Full quote with footnote: 

"It would be absurd to ask people to be reliable who by their very convictions must justify any given situation. It must be conceded that up to the time when the Nazis, in establishing themselves as a race-elite, frankly bestowed their contempt on all peoples, including the German, French racism was the most consistent, for it never fell into the weakness of patriotism. (This attitude did not change even during the last war; true, the "''essence aryenne''" no longer was a monopoly of the Germans but rather of the Anglo-Saxons, the Swedes, and the Normans, but nation, patriotism, and law were still considered to be "prejudices, fictitious and nominal values.") * Even Taine believed firmly in the superior genius of the "Germanic nation," and Ernest Renan was probably the first to oppose the "Semites" to the "Aryans" in a decisive "''division du genre humaine''", (39) although he held civilization to be the great superior force which destroys local originalities as well as original race differences. All the loose race talk so characteristic of French writers after 1870, even if they are not themselves racist in the strict sense of the word, follows pro-Germanic anti-nationalist lines.

(39) In Gobineau's opinion, the Semites were a white hvbrid race bastardized by al mixture with blacks. For Renan see ''Histoire Générale et Système comparé des Langues'', 1863, Part I, pp. 4, 503, and passim. The same distinction in his ''Langues Sémitiques''.

{{Long quote|date=July 2025}}</ref>

He did not regard the [[Ashkenazi Jews]] of Europe as being a Semitic people. Renan is acknowledged for  launching the so-called [[Khazar theory]]. This theory states that Ashkenazim had their origin in Turkic refugees that had converted to Judaism and later migrated from the collapsed [[Khazar Khanate]] westward into the [[Rhineland]], and exchanged their native [[Khazar language]] for the [[Yiddish language]] while continuing to practice the Jewish religion. In his 1883 lecture "''Le Judaïsme comme race et comme religion''" ("{{translation|Judaism as a race and as a religion}}") he disputed the concept that [[Jewish people]] constitute a unified racial entity in a ''biological'' sense,<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/lejudasmecommer00renagoog#page/n9/mode/2up ''Le Judaïsme comme Race et comme Religion: Conférence faite au Cercle Saint-Simon'']. Paris: Calmann Lévy, 1883.</ref> which made his views unpalatable within [[racial antisemitism]]. Renan was also known for being a strong critic of [[German ethnic nationalism]], with its antisemitic undertones.<ref>Mian, Aristide (1945–46). "Renan on War and Peace," ''The American Scholar'', Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 90–96.</ref> His notions of race and ethnicity were completely at odds with the European antisemitism of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Renan wrote the following about the long history of [[persecution of Jews]]:

<blockquote>When all nations and all ages have persecuted you, there must be some motive behind it all. The Jew, up to our own time, insinuated himself everywhere, claiming the protection of the common law; but, in reality, remaining outside the common law. He retained his own status; he wished to have the same guarantees as everyone else, and, over and above that, his own exceptions and special laws. He desired the advantages of the nations without being a nation, without helping to bear the burdens of the nations. No people has ever been able to tolerate this. The nations are military creations founded and maintained by the sword; they are the work of peasants and soldiers; towards establishing them the Jews have contributed nothing. Herein is the great fallacy inspired in Israelite pretensions. The tolerated alien can be useful to a country, but only on condition that the country does not allow itself to be invaded by him. It is not fair to claim family rights in a house which one has not built, like those birds which come and take up their quarters in a nest which does not belong to them, or like the crustaceans which steal the shell of another species.<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/renansantichrist00renaiala#page/n3/mode/2up ''Antichrist'']. London: Walter Scott, Ltd., 1900, pp. 126–127.</ref></blockquote>

However, during the 1880s, Renan shifted away from these views. In a lecture on "Judaism as a Race and as a Religion", he stated:

<blockquote>When, in 1791, the National Assembly decreed the emancipation of the Jews, it concerned itself very little with race. It considered that men ought to be judged, not by the blood that runs in their veins, but by their moral and intellectual value. It is the glory of France to take these questions by their human side. The work of the nineteenth century is to tear down every ghetto, and I have no praise for those who seek to rebuild them. The Israelite race has in the past rendered the greatest services to the world. Blended with the different nations, in harmony with the diverse national unities of Europe, it will continue to do in the future what it has done in the past. By its collaboration with all the liberal forces of Europe, it will contribute eminently to the social progress of humanity.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rose |first1=Paul Lawrence |title=Renan versus Gobineau: Semitism and Antisemitism, Ancient Races and Modern Liberal Nations |journal=History of European Ideas |date=2013 |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=528–540|doi=10.1080/01916599.2012.724549 |s2cid=145204339 }}</ref><ref name="Gidley">{{cite journal |last1=Gidley |first1=Ben |title=On the Nation and the 'Jewish People' |journal=Ethnic and Racial Studies |date=2011 |volume=35 |issue=4 |pages=782–783 |doi=10.1080/01419870.2011.643817 |s2cid=145721356 }}</ref></blockquote>

In the aforementioned 1882 conference on ''[[What Is a Nation?]]'', Renan had spoken out against the theories that were based on race: <blockquote>Both the principle of nations is right and legitimate, as that of the primordial right of races is wrong and full of dangers for true progress … The truth is that pure race does not exist and that to base politics on ethnographic analysis means to base it on a chimera.<ref>Based on these quotes, J. V. Dagon in ''Ernest Renan and The Question of Race'' argues that Renan cannot be considered a follower of French racist diplomat [[Arthur de Gobineau|Gobineau]], as instead [[Tzvetan Todorov|Todorov]] affirms. For Gobineau the main responsible for the decadence of civilization is the mixing of races. Furthermore, according to Gobineau, morality and intelligence are determined by human physiology. Renan, on the contrary, does not speak of superior and inferior races based on biological criteria, and he clearly states that "a pure race does not exist". {{Cite book |title=Ernest Renan and The Question of Race |last=Dagon |first=Jane Victoria |publisher=Louisiana State University |date=1999 |location=Baton Rouge |page=74}}</ref></blockquote>

In 1883, in a lecture called "The Original Identity and Gradual Separation of Judaism and Christianity", he said:

<blockquote>Judaism, which has served so well in the past, will still serve in the future. It will serve the true cause of liberalism, of the modern spirit. Every Jew is a liberal ... The enemies of Judaism, however, if you only look at them more closely, you will see that they are the enemies of the modern spirit in general.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Trawny |first1=Peter |title=Heidegger, "World Judaism," and Modernity |journal=Gatherings: The Heidegger Circle Annual |date=2015 |volume=5 |pages=1–20|doi=10.5840/gatherings201551 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Graetz |first1=Michael |title=The Jews in Nineteenth-century France: From the French Revolution to the Alliance Israélite Universelle |date=1996 |publisher=Stanford University Press |page=212}}</ref></blockquote>

Other comments on race, have also proven controversial, especially his belief that political policy should take into account supposed racial differences:

<blockquote>Nature has made a race of workers, the Chinese race, who have wonderful manual dexterity and almost no sense of honor... A race of tillers of the soil, the Negro; treat him with kindness and humanity, and all will be as it should; a race of masters and soldiers, the European race. Reduce this noble race to working in the [[ergastulum]] like Negroes and Chinese, and they rebel... But the life at which our workers rebel would make a Chinese or a [[fellaheen|fellah]] happy, as they are not military creatures in the least. Let each one do what he is made for, and all will be well.<ref>Ernest Renan, ''La Reforme Intellectuelle et Morale''. Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1929.</ref></blockquote>

This passage, among others, was cited by [[Aimé Césaire]] in his ''Discours sur le colonialisme'', as evidence of the alleged hypocrisy of Western humanism and its "sordidly racist" conception of the rights of man.<ref name="Césaire-2000">{{cite book |last=Césaire |first=Aimé |date=2000 |title=Discourse on Colonialism |translator-last=Pinkham |translator-first=Joan |publisher=Monthly Review Press |location=New York |isbn=978-1-58367-025-5 |oclc=826660189 |orig-date=1955|page=38 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=md0VCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA38 <!--free to print-disabled: https://archive.org/details/discourseoncolon00cs/page/n107/mode/2up-->}}</ref>

===Republican racism===
During the arising of racism theories around Europe and specifically in [[French Third Republic]], Renan had an important influence on the matter. He was a defender of people's [[self-determination]] concept,<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/poetryofcelticra00renauoft#page/60/mode/2up "What is a Nation?"] In: ''The Poetry of the Celtic Races, and Other Essays''. London: The Walter Scott Publishing Co., 1896, pp. 61–83.</ref> but on the other hand was in fact convinced of a "racial hierarchy of peoples" that he said was "established".<ref>Preface to [https://archive.org/stream/futureofsciencei00rena#page/n7/mode/2up ''The Future of Science'']. London: Chapman & Hall, 1891.</ref> Discursively, he subordinated the principle of self-determination of peoples to a racial hierarchy,<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/futureofsciencei00rena#page/n7/mode/2up ''The Future of Science'']. London: Chapman & Hall, 1891.</ref> i.e. he supported the colonialist expansion and the racist view of the Third Republic because he believed the French to be hierarchically superior (in a racial matter) to the African nations.<ref>Manceron, Gilles (2005). ''Marianne et les Colonies: Une Introduction à l'Histoire Coloniale de la France''. Éditions La Découverte.</ref> This subtle racism, called by [[:fr:Gilles Manceron|Gilles Manceron]] "Republican racism",<ref>Manceron (2005).</ref> was common in France during the Third Republic and was also a well-known defensing discourse in politics. Supporters of colonialism used the concept of cultural superiority, and described themselves as "protectors of civilization" to justify their colonial actions and territorial expansion. There was also another motivation for his support of colonialism: Renan wrote that "a nation which does not colonize is irrevocably doomed to socialism, to the war between rich and poor".<ref>{{cite book |title=Reparation, Restitution, and the Politics of Memory
| editor-first1=Mario | editor-last1=Laarmann
| editor-first2=Clément Ndé | editor-last2=Fongang
| editor-first3=Carla | editor-last3=Seemann
| editor-first4=Laura | editor-last4=Vordermayer
|date=2023 |publisher=[[De Gruyter]] |page=2}}</ref>

==Honours==
* The armoured cruiser ''[[French cruiser Ernest Renan|Ernest Renan]]'', launched in 1906, was named in his honour.
* The community of [[Renan, Virginia]] was named after him.

==Archives and memorabilia==
* [[Musée de la Vie romantique]], Hôtel Scheffer-Renan, Paris

==Works==
{{Div col|small=yes}}

* (1848). ''De l'origine du langage''.
* (1852). ''Averroës et l'averroïsme''.
* (1852). ''De Philosophia Peripatetica, apud Syros''.
* (1854). ''L'Âme bretonne''. 
* (1855). ''Histoire générale et systèmes comparés des langues sémitiques''. 
* (1857). ''Études d'histoire religieuse''.
* (1858). ''Le Livre de Job''.
* (1859). ''Essais de morale et de critique''.
* (1860). ''Le Cantique des cantiques''. 
* (1862). ''Henriette Renan, souvenir pour ceux qui l'ont connue''.
* (1863–1881). ''Histoire des origines du christianisme'':
** (1863). ''Vie de Jésus''.
** (1866). ''Les Apôtres''.
** (1869). ''Saint Paul''. 
** (1873). ''L'Antéchrist''.
** (1877). ''Les Évangiles et la seconde génération chrétienne''.
** (1879). ''L'Église chrétienne''.
** (1882). ''Marc-Aurèle ou la Fin du monde antique''.
** (1883). ''Index''.
* (1864). [[Mission de Phénicie (1865–1874)]]
* (1865). [https://www.lexilogos.com/document/renan/acropole.htm ''Prière sur l'Acropole''].
* (1865). ''Histoire littéraire de la France au XIVe siècle'' [with Victor Le Clerc].
* (1868). ''Questions contemporaines''.
* (1871). ''La Réforme intellectuelle  et morale de la France''.
* (1876). ''Dialogues et fragments philosophiques''.
* (1878). ''Mélanges d'histoire et de voyages''.
* (1878–1886). ''Drames philosophiques'':
** (1878). ''Caliban''.
** (1881). ''L'Eau de jouvance''.
** (1885). ''Le Prêtre de Némi''.<ref>Renan considers the problem of a rational transformation by High Priest [[Antistia gens|Antistius]] of the practice of human sacrifice into "a more humane, spiritual, and scientific form." See ''Brieux and Contemporary French Society'', by William H. Scheifley, 408. https://books.google.com/books?id=_dIaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA408&lpg=PA408 Accessed 27 February 2014</ref>
** (1886). ''L'Abbesse de Jouarre''.
* (1880). ''Conférences d'Angleterre''.
* (1881). ''L'Ecclésiaste''.
* (1882). [[What Is a Nation?|''Qu'est-ce qu'une Nation?'']]
* (1883). [https://www.mcgill.ca/islamicstudies/files/islamicstudies/renan_islamism_cversion.pdf Islam and Science: A lecture presented at La Sorbonne, 29 March 1883].''<ref>English translation 2nd ed (2011), S.P. Ragep. Montréal, Canada: McGill University</ref>
* (1883). ''Souvenirs d'enfance et de jeunesse''. 
* (1884). ''Nouvelles études d'histoire religieuse''.
* (1884). ''Le Bouddhisme''. 
* (1887). ''Discours et conférences''.
* (1887–1893). ''Histoire du peuple d'Israël'' [5 volumes].
* (1889). ''Examen de conscience philosophique''.
* (1890). ''L'Avenir de la science, pensées de 1848''.
* (1892). ''Feuilles détachées''.
* (1899). ''Études sur la politique religieuse du règne de Philippe le Bel''.
* (1904). ''Mélanges religieux et historiques''. 
* (1908). ''Patrice''.
* (1914). ''Fragments intimes et romanesques''.
* (1921). ''Essai psycologique sur Jésus-Christ''.
* (1928). ''Voyages: Italie, Norvège''.
* (1928). ''Sur Corneille, Racine et Bossuet''.
* (1945). ''Ernest Renan et l'Allemagne''.

'''Works in English translation'''

* (1862). ''An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture''. London: Trübner & Co.
* (1864). ''Studies of Religious History and Criticism''. New York: Carleton Publisher.
* (1864). ''The Life of Jesus''. London: Trübner & Co.
* (1866). ''The Apostles''. New York: Carleton Publisher.
* (1868). ''Saint Paul''. London: The Temple Company. 
* (1871). ''Constitutional Monarchy in France''. Boston: Robert Brothers.
* (1885). ''Lectures on the Influence of the Institutions, Thought and Culture of Rome, on Christianity and the Development of the Catholic Church''. London: Williams & Norgate ([[Hibbert Lectures|The Hibbert Lectures]]). 
** (1888). ''English Conferences of Ernest Renan''. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.
* (1888–1895). ''History of the People of Israel''. London: Chapman & Hall [5 vols.]
* (1888). ''Marcus-Aurelius''. London: Mathieson & Company.
* (1888). ''The Abbess of Jouarre''. New York: G.W. Dillingham.
* (1889). ''The Gospels''. London: Mathieson & Company. 
* (1890). ''The Antichrist''. London: Mathieson & Company.
* (1890). ''Cohelet; or, the Preacher''. London: Mathieson & Company.
* (1891). ''The Future of Science''. London: Chapman & Hall.
* (1891). ''The Song of Songs''. London: W.M. Thomson.
* (1892). ''Recollections and Letters of Ernest Renan''. New York: Cassell Publishing Company.
* (1893). ''The Book of Job''. London: W.M. Thomson.
* (1895). ''My Sister Henrietta''. Boston: Robert Brothers.
* (1896). ''Brother and Sister: A Memoir and the Letters of Ernest & Henriette Renan''. London: William Heinemann. 
* (1896). ''Caliban: A Philosophical Drama''. London: The Shakespeare Press.
* (1896). ''The Poetry of the Celtic Races, and Other Essays''. London: The Walter Scott Publishing Co.
* (1904). ''Renan's Letters from the Holy Land''. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company.
* (1935). ''The Memoirs of Ernest Renan''. London: G. Bles.
{{div col end}}

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=24em}}
* [[Baal Lebanon inscription]]
* [[Hiram's Tomb]]
* [[Hortense Cornu]]
* [[Modernism in the Catholic Church]]
* [[Postcolonialism]]
* [[Right to exist]]
* [[Royal necropolis of Byblos]]
* [[Tyre, Lebanon]]
* [[Umm al-Amad votive inscription]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
;Notes
{{notelist}}
;Citations
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* Alaya, Flavia M. (1967). "Arnold and Renan on the Popular Uses of History," ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', Vol. 28, No. 4, pp.&nbsp;551–574.
* [[Joxe Azurmendi|Azurmendi, Joxe]] (2003): [http://www.jakingunea.com/show/7cfa07935d56f2a6d280b600564ea5694499e1d0 Humboldt eta Renanen nazio kontzeptua], ''RIEV'', Vol. 48, No. 1, 91–124.
* [[Joxe Azurmendi|Azurmendi, Joxe]] (2014): ''Historia, arraza, nazioa. Renan eta nazionalismoaren inguruko topiko batzuk'', Donostia: Elkar. {{ISBN|978-84-9027-297-8}}
* [[Irving Babbitt|Babbitt, Irving]] (1912). [https://archive.org/stream/mastersofmodernf00babbiala#page/256/mode/2up "Renan."] In: ''The Masters of Modern French Criticism''. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. 
* Bancquart, Marie-Claire (1994). "Renan, Maître de la Violence Sceptique," ''Revue d'Histoire Littéraire de la France'', 94e Année, No. 1, pp.&nbsp;48–58.
* Barry, William (1897). [https://archive.org/stream/nationalreview2918unse#page/556/mode/2up "Newman and Renan,"] ''The National Review,'' Vol. XXIX, pp.&nbsp;557–576.
* Barry, William Francis (1905). [https://archive.org/stream/ernestrenan00barr#page/n7/mode/2up ''Ernest Renan'']. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
* Bazouge, Francis (1889). [https://archive.org/stream/revuedumondecath100savauoft#page/n9/mode/2up "Ernest Renan,"] ''[[Revue du monde catholique]]'', Vol. C, pp.&nbsp;5–26.
* Bierer, Dora (1953). "Renan and His Interpreters: A Study in French Intellectual Warfare," ''The Journal of Modern History'', Vol. 25, No. 4, pp.&nbsp;375–389.
* [[Georg Brandes|Brandes, Georg]] (1886). [https://archive.org/stream/cu31924027150519#page/n171/mode/2up "Ernest Renan."] In: ''Eminent Authors of the Nineteenth Century.'' New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company.
* Chadbourne, Richard M. (1949). "Renan, or the Contemptuous Approach to Literature," ''Yale French Studies'', No. 3, Criticism and Creation, pp.&nbsp;96–104.
* Chadbourne, Richard M. (1951). "Renan's Revision of His Liberté de Penser Articles," ''PMLA'', Vol. 66, No. 6, pp.&nbsp;927–950.
* DiVanna, Isabel (2010). ''Writing History in the Third Republic''. Cambridge Scholars Publishing [https://www.amazon.com/Writing-History-Republic-Isabel-Noronha-Divanna/dp/1443819344/  excerpt and text search]
* [[Francis Espinasse|Espinasse, Francis]] (1895). [https://archive.org/stream/lifeofernestrena00espirich#page/n5/mode/2up ''Life and Writings of Ernest Renan'']. London: The Walter Scott Publishing Co.
* [[M. E. Grant Duff|Grant Duff, Mountstuart E.]] (1893). [https://archive.org/stream/ernestrenaninmem00granuoft#page/n5/mode/2up ''Ernest Renan, in Memoriam'']. London: Macmillan & Co.
* [[Albert Léon Guérard|Guérard, Albert Léon]] (1913). [https://archive.org/stream/frenchprophetsof00gueruoft#page/224/mode/2up "Ernest Renan."] In: ''French Prophets of Yesterday''. London: T. Fisher Unwin.
* [[Robert G. Ingersoll|Ingersoll, Robert G.]] (1892). "Ernest Renan," ''The North American Review'', Vol. CLV, No. 432, pp.&nbsp;608–622.
* [[Jules Lemaître|Lemaître, Jules]] (1921). [https://archive.org/stream/literaryimpressi00lemauoft#page/80/mode/2up "Ernest Renan."] In: ''Literary Impressions.'' London: Daniel O'Connor, pp.&nbsp;80–107.
* Lenoir, Raymond (1925). "Renan and the Study of Humanity," ''American Journal of Sociology'', Vol. 31, No. 3, pp.&nbsp;289–317.
* Mott, Lewis F. (1918). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2915405 "Renan and Matthew Arnold,"] ''Modern Language Notes'', Vol. 33, No. 2, pp.&nbsp;65–73.
* Mott, Lewis F. (1921). [https://archive.org/stream/ernestrenan00mottiala#page/n7/mode/2up ''Ernest Renan'']. New York: D. Appleton and Company.
* [[Frederic William Henry Myers|Myers, F.W.H.]] (1897). [https://archive.org/stream/essaysmodern00myeriala#page/162/mode/2up "Ernest Renan."] In: ''Essays''. London: Macmillan & Co.
* Neubauer, A. (1893). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1449860 "M. Ernest Renan,"] ''The Jewish Quarterly Review'', Vol. 5, No. 2, pp.&nbsp;200–211. 
* Priest, Robert D. "Ernest Renan's Race Problem." ''The Historical Journal'' 58.1 (2015): 309–330. [https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/ws/files/23439247/HJ_Renan_and_Race.pdf online], examines the polarized debate on whether or not Renan was racist.
* Priest, Robert D. (2015). ''The Gospel According to Renan: Reading, Writing, and Religion in Nineteenth-Century France''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Richard, Edouard (1996). ''Ernest Renan Penseur Traditionaliste?'' Presses Universitaires d'Aix-Marseille. 
* [[Agnes Mary Frances Duclaux|Robinson, Agnes Mary Frances]] (1897). [https://archive.org/stream/lifeofernestrena00robiuoft#page/n7/mode/2up ''The Life of Ernest Renan'']. London: Methuen & Co.
* [[Romain Rolland|Rolland, Romain]] (1925). "A Conversation with Ernest Renan," ''The Century Magazine'', Vol. CIX, No. 4, pp.&nbsp;435–439.
* [[George Saintsbury|Saintsbury, George]] (1892). [https://archive.org/stream/miscellaneousess00sain#page/114/mode/2up "Ernest Renan."] In: ''Miscellaneous Essays''. London: Percival & Co. 
* Shapiro, Gary (1982). "Nietzsche Contra Renan," ''History and Theory'', Vol. 21, No. 2, pp.&nbsp;193–222.
{{Refend}}

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline|Ernest Renan}}
*{{Wikiquote-inline}}
*{{Wikisource author-inline}}
*{{Wikisourcelang-inline|fr|Ernest Renan|Ernest Renan}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=4527| name=Ernest Renan}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Ernest Renan}}
* [https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?filter=&Search=Search&wc=on&Query=au:%22Ernest+Renan%22&si=1 Works by Ernest Renan] at [[JSTOR]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110827065548/http://www.cooper.edu/humanities/core/hss3/e_renan.html ''What is a Nation?'' – Renan's most famous lecture in English translation]
* [https://dlxs2.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=cdl;idno=cdl064 The history of the origins of Christianity] Cornell University Library Historical Monographs Collection.  {Reprinted by} [https://www.amazon.com/dp/1429740108/ Cornell University Library Digital Collections]
* [http://ernest-renan.fr/ Société des Études renaniennes] (Ernest Renan's Society website)
* {{PM20|FID=pe/014425}}

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