Fabrice Hadjadj's 'Petit éloge du catholicisme' reviewed in art press

In the November 2009 issue of art press (n°361), a book review by Fabrice Hadjadj examines Patrick Kéchichian's 'Petit éloge du catholicisme' (Éditions Gallimard). The review argues that the book inverts its title, showing Catholicism as the very place of praise that deepens into worship—a song acknowledging its inadequacy before its subject. It contends that praise would cease to be praise if it claimed to master its object; rhetorical strength would become essential weakness without confessing a radical failure. The author aims to praise something that is not before him but encompasses him. The review connects this work to Hadjadj's earlier 'pamphlet' 'Des princes et des principautés', which attacked the 'religion of literature' and writers' tendency to make themselves the exclusive measure of the world. It warns that following this idolatrous path exhausts literature, reducing it to bitter syllogisms. The review emphasizes the need for distress that illuminates and joy that tears apart, rejecting a vague privative god, a consensual religious sentiment, an aesthetic pose of calling oneself 'Roman Catholic', or a philosophical ascent to a faceless transcendence. Instead, it points to the advent of the One who was crucified.