Adolphe Monod

Who was Adolphe Monod?

Adolphe-Louis-Frédéric-Théodore Monod, was a French Protestant churchman. His elder brother was Frédéric Monod.

He was born in Copenhagen, where his father was pastor of the French church. Educated at Paris and Geneva, he began his life-work in 1825 as founder and pastor of a Protestant church in Naples, moving to Lyon in 1827. Here his evangelical preaching, and especially a sermon on the duties of communicants, led to his deposition by the Catholic Minister of education and religion. Instead of leaving Lyon he began to preach in a hall and then in a chapel.

On 2 September 1829 he married Hannah Honyman in Lyon. They had seven children.

In 1836 he took a professorship in the theological college of Montauban, removing in 1847 to Paris as preacher at the Oratoire. He died there in 1856.

Monod was undoubtedly the foremost Protestant preacher of 19th century France. He published three volumes of sermons in 1830, another, La Crédulité de l'incrédule in 1844, and two more in 1855. Two further volumes appeared after his death. One of his most influential books was the posthumous, Les Adieux d'Adolphe Monod à ses Amis et à l'Église.