Ernesto Buonaiuti

Ernesto Buonaiuti (April 24, 1881 – April 20, 1946) was an Italian historian, philosopher of religion, Catholic priest and anti-fascist. He lost his chair at the University of Rome owing to his opposition to the Fascists. As a scholar in History of Christianity and religious philosophy he was one of the most important exponents of the modernist current.

Buonaiuti was born in Rome on April 24, 1881. He was ordained priest on December 19, 1903, and began his studies working with the historian of religion Salvatore Minocchi. He made use of the positive method in his study of early Christianity in his book Il cristianesimo primitivo e la Politica imperiale romana ("Primitive Christianity and Roman Imperial Politics", 1911).

At the age of 24 he founded the magazine Rivista storico-critica delle scienze teologiche ("Historical-critical Review of the Theological Sciences"), in order to propagate his vision of religious culture in Italy, and after that he directed the magazine Ricerche religiose ("Religious Researches"). Those magazines were soon banned by the church and placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the index of publications to be considered as forbidden to Catholic readers.

On January 25, 1925 he was punished with excommunication, which was confirmed several times, because in his works he defended the ideas of the modernist current, particularly in Il programma dei modernisti ("The Modernists' Program", 1908) and Lettere di un prete modernista ("Letters from a Modernist Priest", 1908).

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