Pressensé, EDMOND DE, a prominent French Protestant theologian, was born in Paris, January 24, 1824, studied at the university there, next under Vinet at Lausanne, and Tholuck and Neander at Halle and Berlin, and in 1847 became a pastor at Paris. He was deputy to the National Assembly for the Seine department in 1871–76, and was elected a senator for life in 1883. He received the D.D. degree from Breslau in 1869 and Edinburgh in 1884. He died April 8, 1891. A strong thinker and vigorous writer, as well as eloquent preacher, Pressensé took a foremost part in the great theological as well as ecclesiastical controversies of the day; published many learned and important books, most of which have been translated into English and German; and contributed to the theological and literary magazines on both sides of the Channel—the article on CHRISTIANITY in the present work is from his pen.
The following are the most important books: Le Rédempteur (1854; Eng. trans. 1864); Histoire des Trois Premiers Siècles de l'Église Chrétienne (4 vols. 1858–77; Eng. trans. 1869–78; a thoroughly revised and extended edition had reached its third volume in 1890); L'Église et la Révolution Française (1864; Eng. trans. 1869); Jésus Christ, son Temps, sa Vie, son Œuvre (1866; Eng. trans. 1866); Études Contemporaines (1880; Eng. trans. New York, 1880); and Les Origines (1882; Eng. trans. 1883).