Sources nouvelles, sources revisitées. Le traitement des sources dans l'historiographie religieuse du XXe siècle

摘要

The use and handling of sources depends primarily on the conditions in which histonographical production evolves — access to sources, questions of censorship or self-censorship, or the framework of analysis which are available to historians. The article reveals three main periods. During the years 1900 to 1930, the rules of the histonco-critical method took over an historiography which was still largely clerical and apologetic. The apostolic legends concerning the foundation of churches were abandoned in favour of documentary research supposed by impeccable erudition. From the 1930s onwards, questions emanating from other human sciences, especially sociology, but also from political science and economic history, entered the field of religious history. But it was only with the renewal of religious history from the 1960s onwards that these questions were systematically addressed in university research, which is no longer, for the most part, the work of clergymen and is without any apologietic intent. But the analytical models employed are running out of steam, and it is probably that a return to texts will follow the dominance of facts and figures.