99

Alphonse Gratry (1805-1872) is one of the most prominent Catholic intellectuals of the xixth century. He has long been ignored in spite of having produced an original and evocative body of work which was very popular among French Catholics until the interwar period. A philosopher and graduate of the École Polytechnique, he spawned within the Catholic school of thought a line of independent Thomistic thinkers, namely Léon Ollé-Laprune, Maurice Blondel and Lucien Laberthonnière. This article delves into his philosophical œuvre, published for the most part under the Second Empire, and aims to present first the man and author, then the primary tenets of his doctrine and finally its reception in Europe throughout the second half of the xixth century.