Abstract
Reading Souvenirs d'enfance et de jeunesse in parallel with Vie de Jésus, particularly the preface to the 1873 edition, shows how Renan takes care to present himself as a rigorous Catholic, full of contempt for "liberal theologians" and having preferred to leave the seminar rather than assume the Church capable of compromising on its doctrine ; he is also keen to emphasize in retrospect that the objections to the truth of Scripture that led him to renounce the priesthood were historical and scientific, not philosophical or metaphysical. Hence, from his pen, some unexpected formulations on the Church and even on faith.
