Recent scholarship has sought to reinterpret the French biblical scholar Richard Simon, viewing him less as the unwitting participant in an agenda of radical secularisation, and more as the culmination of centuries of humanistic learning. This article repositions this rehabilitated Simon within the contested theological landscape of late seventeenth century French Catholicism. Drawing upon Simon’s exchanges with the Jansenist Antoine Arnauld and the Jesuit Dominique Bouhours concerning the translation of the New Testament into French, it argues that Simon’s critical approach to scripture can be seen as—and Simon himself defined it as—representative of a tiers parti. This tiers parti stood outside of the structural divisions within seventeenth century Catholicism between Jansenists and Molinists, between advocates of efficacious and sufficient grace. It deployed historical criticism to bolster the authority of Tradition, to undermine rational and speculative theology, and to mollify intra-confessional division.

最近的学术研究试图重新解释法国圣经学者理查德西蒙，将他视为激进世俗化议程的不知情参与者，而更多地视为几个世纪人文主义学习的顶峰。这篇文章在十七世纪晚期法国天主教有争议的神学景观中重新定位了这位被改过自新的西蒙。借鉴西蒙与詹森主义者安托万·阿诺德和耶稣会士多米尼克·布乌尔关于将新约翻译成法文的交流，它认为西蒙对圣经的批判性方法可以被视为——西蒙自己将其定义为——代表了一个层次。这层部分站在 17 世纪天主教中詹森派和莫林派之间的结构性分歧之外，在有效和充分恩典的倡导者之间。它运用历史批评来加强传统的权威，破坏理性和投机的神学，并缓和教派内部的分歧。