Some aspects of religion in French literature from the close of the Revolution till 1830

Abstract

This thesis is intended to illustrate the return of France to her traditional religion after the Revolution of 1789. An introductory chapter gives a rapid sketch of the religious ideas prevalent in France in the seventeenth century and the overwhelming influence of eighteenth century philosophy which attacked religion at its very roots, causing many 6f the intellectual section of the community to abandon their beliefs although the mass of the population remained fundamentally Catholic. Seven writers, Bonald, de Maistre, Mme de Stael, Nodier, Chateaubriand, Benjamin Constant and Lamennais serve to illustrate the reaction against the barren doctrines of Helvetius and d'Holbach, and the immense influence of Rousseau in bringing about a renewal of religious enthusiasm and respect for the things of the spirit. I have tried to show how the conflict between mind and heart or reasoning and sentiment is finally resolved in favour of sentiment, thereby giving rise to the cult of humanitarianism which was destined to militate against true religion and to cause the moral crisis in the Romanticism of 1830. The central figure in this study is Benjamin Constant whom I have chosen because his religious evolution is especially typical of his age. First an atheist, then a sceptic, next a timid believer and finally a theoretical adherent to the Christian faith, he seems to illustrate particularly well the uneasiness and the disquiet of the period in which he lived. In the chapters devoted to Constant, his life and his philosophy, I have incorporated material collected over several years part of which I used for the documentation of a previous thesis on his religious ideas for the Doctorat de l'Universite de Paris (May 1950). This present essay, however, covers a very much wider field. A deep interest in Constant has led to an interest in the religious ideas of the whole transitional period between the philosophical and the Romantic movements and I have attempted to trace the development of ideas linking the two contrasting currents of thought.