Article contents
Pierre Leroux: A Democratic Religion for a New World
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
In the first part of the nineteenth century, Frenchmen had to adjust their world view to the ideological issues raised by the Revolution and to the economic problems that came with the development of industrial society. At issue was the extent to which traditional institutions could adjust to a rapidly changing world. At that time literate Frenchmen felt that they were living in an ideological crisis. Many asked themselves whether Christianity could survive and attempt to resolve the problems of the new world. Such a question had great relevance in an era during which the discussion of social and political issues was felt by most educated Europeans to have a religious foundation. Either the Roman Catholic Church would have to take renewed stock of itself and learn how to deal with the problems of the new era, or a new religion would have to be constructed to resolve the early nineteenth-century ideological crisis.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © American Society of Church History 1975
References
1. Charlton, D. G., Secular Religions in France, 1815–1870 (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), pp. 1–5, 34–36Google Scholar. Louvancour, Henri, De Henri de Saint-Simon d Charles Fourier, étude sur le socialisme romantique de 1830 (Chartres: Imprimeries Durand, 1913), pp. 7–25Google Scholar. Louvancour has documented the feeling of Frenchmen in the first decades of the nineteenth century that they were living in an ideological crisis.
2. Leroy, Maxim, Histoire des idées sociales en France (Paris: Gallimand, 1962), 2:437–456Google Scholar; Leflon, Jean, La crise révolutionnaire, 1789–1846, vol. 20 of Histoire de l'Eglise depuis les origines jusqu'd nos jours, ed. by Fliche, Augustin and Martin, Victor, 16 vols. (Paris: Bloud & Gay, 1935–1952), pp. 396–399.Google Scholar
3. Ballanche, Pierre-Simon, Essai sur les institutions sociales, in Oeuvres de M. Ballanche (Paris: Librairie de J. Barbezat, 1830), 2:316–317, 350–356Google Scholar; Ballanche, Pierre-Simon, Palingénési sociale: prolégoménes in Oeuvres de M. Ballanche (Paris: Bureau de L'Encyclopédie des Connaissances Utiles, 1833), 4:331–351.Google Scholar
4. Buchez, P. J. B. and Roux, D. C., Histoire parlementaire de la Révolution française, 40 vols. (Paris: Paulin, 1834–1838), 1: i; 2: iiiGoogle Scholar; 3: iii, 23: vi; 26: xv. In 1834 the two editors began publishing this forty volume collection of documents relating the history of the French Revolution. In prefaces to each volume they expressed their view of France's revolutionary past.
5. Cited in Guillemin, Henri, Histoire des Catholiques français au XIXe siècle (Geneva: Editions du Milieu du Monde, 1947), p. 81.Google Scholar
6. See Duroselle, Jean Baptiste, Les débuts du Catholicisme social en France jusqu'en 1870 (Paris: Presses Universitaires, 1951), pp. 1–23.Google Scholar
7. Charlton, pp. 136–141.
8. de Saint-Simon, Henri, Nouveau christianisme (Paris: Aubry, 1943,) p. 26.Google Scholar
9. Weill, Georges, L'école saint-simonienne, son histoire, son influence jusqu'd nos jours (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1896), pp. 42–56Google Scholar; Charlton, pp. 79–87.
10. Bakunin, Jack, “Pierre Leroux: First Democratic Socialist,” New Politics 10 (Fall 1973): 91–97.Google Scholar
11. Charlton, p. 83.
12. Guiseppe Mazzini to Mrs. X, December 29, 1840, in Mazzini, Guiseppe, Lettres intimes de Joseph Mazzini, ed. by Melegari, D. (Paris: Perrin & Cie., 1895), pp. 242–243Google Scholar; Malia, Martin, Alexander Herzen and the Birth of Russian Socialism, 1812–1855 (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1961), pp. 189, 213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13. Karénine, Wladimir (Varvara Dmitriyevna Komarova), George Sand, sa vie et ses oeuvres, 4 vols. (Paris: Plon-Ollendorf, 1899–1926), 3:18–21.Google Scholar
14. A(nge) Guépin, , Philosophie du socialisme, ou étude sur les transformations dans le monde et l'humanité (Paris: Gustave Sandré, 1850), p. 596.Google Scholar
15. Leronx, Pierre, De l'humanité, de son principe et de son avenir, où se trouve exposée la vraie définition de la religion, ct où l'on explique le sens, la suite et l'enchaîneiment du mosaisme et du christianisme. 2 vols. (Paris: Perrotin. 1840), 1: 150–151. 179Google Scholar: Leroux, Pierre, Réfutation de l'eclectisme, où se trouve exposée la uraie definition du la philosophie. et où l'on explique le sens, la suite, et l'enchainment des divers philosophes depuis Descartes (Paris: C. Gosselin, 1839), pp. 26–27, 37–38Google Scholar: Leroux, Pierre. De l'éoalité (Boussac: Imprimerie de Pierre Leroux. 1848), pp. v. x–xi, 128–130, 255–256Google Scholar; Leroux, Pierre, De l'origine démocratique du christianisme, vol. 2 of Du christianisme et de son origine démocratique (Boussac: Imprimerie de Pierre Leroux. 1848), pp. 91–95Google Scholar; Weill, Georges, Histoirc du parti républicain en France, 1814–1870 (Paris: Félix Alcan. 1928), p. 242Google Scholar. The work De l'égalité was first published in 1838 while the volumes of Du christianisme ct de son origine démocratique were reprints of Leroux's encyclopedia articles “Christianisme” and “Conciles” which had appeared in 1837.
16. Leroux, , De l'humanité, 2:733, 900–912, 940–943, 972.Google Scholar
17. This article makes no attempt to evaluate the accuracy of Leroux's view of Christianity and of Christian history. The concern is with how that view persuaded this prominent early nineteenth-century social and religious reformer that Christianity should be replaced by a new democratic religion.
18. Leroux, Pierre, “De la philosophie et du christianisme. Réponse à quelques critiques,” Revue Encyclopédique 55 (08 1832): 282.Google Scholar
19. Leroux, Pierre, Du christianisme, vol. 1 of Du christianisme et de son origine démocratique, pp. 4–6, 16, 29, 33, 35, 42, 76–79, 92, 218: Charlton, pp. 136–140, 144–147Google Scholar; Weill, , L'école saint-simonienne, pp. 144–147Google Scholar; Evans, David Owen, Le socialisme romantiqae, Pierre Leroux et ses contemporains (Paris: Marcel Rivière, 1948), pp. 147–148Google Scholar; Leroux, Pierre, “De l'influence philosophique des études orientaies,” Revue Encyclopedique 54 (04 1832): 69–70.Google Scholar
20. Jouffroy, Théodore, “Comment les dogmes finissent,” Le Globe, 05 24, 1825Google Scholar; de Rémusat, Charles, Mémoircs de ma vie (Paris: Librairie Plon, 1959), 2:152Google Scholar; Ponteil, Félix, L'évcil des nationalitiés et le mouvement libéral, vol. 15 of Peuples et Civilisations, ed. by Haiphen, Louis and Sagnac, Philippe, 20 vols. (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1926–1968), pp. 255–256Google Scholar; Dubois to Damiron, 1818, cited in Adolphe Lair, “Le Globe, sa fondation, sa rédaction, son influence: d'après des documents inédits,” Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, Séances et Travaux 64 (1904): 575Google Scholar; Leroux, Pierre, “De la philosophie électique enseignée par M. Jouffroy,” Revue Encyclopedique 59 (07 1833): 27–29Google Scholar; “Introduction,” Revue Indépendante 1 (11 1841): v–xxGoogle Scholar; Leroux, Pierre, “De la mutilation d'un écrit posthume de Jouffroy,” Revue Indépendante 5 (11 1, 1842): 264–267.Google Scholar
21. Leroux, Pierre, “De la politique extérieure au XIXe siècle, et du perfectionnement du droit international,” Le Globe, 06 24, 1829Google Scholar; Leroux, Pierre, “Profession de foi,” Le Globe, 01 18, 1831Google Scholar; Weill, , L'école saint-simonienne, pp. 91–105Google Scholar; Iggers, Georg G., The Cult of Authority, the political philosophy of the Saint-Simonians, a chapter in the history of totalitarianism (The Hague: Martinus J. Nijhoff, 1958), pp. 24–35, 135–136.Google Scholar
22. Leroux, , Le Globe, 06 24, 1829Google Scholar; Leroux, Pierre, “De l'union européenne,” Le Globe, 11 24, 1827.Google Scholar
23. Leroux, Pierre, “Préface aux souscripteurs de la Revue,” Revue Encyclopédique 60 (10 1833): xxxii.Google Scholar
24. Leroux, , De l'humanité, 1:iii.Google Scholar
25. Leroux, Pierre, “Aux politiques. De la politique sociale et religieuse qui convient à notre époque,” Revue Indépenāante 1 (11 1, 1841): 117Google Scholar: Leroux, , “De la philosophie et du christianisme. Réponse á quelques critiques.” pp. 282–288Google Scholar; Leroux, Pierre, “De la loi de continuité qui unit le XVIIIe siècle au XVIIe,” Revue Encyclopédique 58 (03 1833): 480–492Google Scholar; Leroux, Pierre, D'une religion nationale, ou du culte (Boussac: Imprimerie de Pierre Leroux, 1846), pp. 112–118, 126–128Google Scholar. This last work was a reproduction of an 1840 encyclopedia article entitled “Culte”.
26. Leroux, , De l'humanité, 2:792–794.Google Scholar
27. Leroux, , De l'égalité, pp. 175–177Google Scholar. Leroux gleaned his material on the Jews of this period from the contemporary accounts of Flavius Josephus, Pliny the Elder and philo of Alexandria. Josephus was a Jewish priest in Jerusalem in the first century A.D. Philo of Alexandria, a Hellenized Jew of the same period, sought to reconcile the Torah and Platonic philosophy by allegorical interpretation of the Bible. Pliny the Elder, a Roman writer of the same era, put together huge works that are full of invaluable information for students of the period.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid., pp. 180–193, 201–204; Leroux, , De l'humanité, 2:675.Google Scholar
30. Leroux, , De l'humanité, 2:775–776, 990–991.Google Scholar
31. Leroux, , De l'humanité, pp. 873–932.Google Scholar
32. Ibid., pp. 685, 703, 712, 718, 733, 737–739, 957.
33. Ibid., 1.271; 2:972–973; Leroux, Pierre, “De la fable,” Introduction to Pierre Lachambéaudie, Fables (Paris: Michel, 1851), pp. clxxix–clxxx.Google Scholar
34. Leroux, , De l'humanité, 2:787–788, 792, 802–803, 812–827.Google Scholar
35. Ibid., 2.821, 878, 888–889, 897, 911–913, 818, 926–930.
36. Leroux, Pierre, “Aux politiques,” Revue Independante 2 (01 1842): 7.Google Scholar
37. Leroux, , De l'origine démocratique du christianisme, pp. 1, 9, 11–14, 28–34, 39–40, 66–67.Google Scholar
38. Leroux, Pierre, “Baptéme,” Encyclopédie nouvelle, ou dictionnaire philosophique, scientifique, littéraire et industriel, offrant le tableau des connaissances humaines an XIXe siècle, par une société de savants et de littérateurs, ed. by Leroux, Pierre and Reynaud, Jean, 8 vols. (Paris: Gosselin 1836–1841), 2:403–406Google Scholar; Leroux, Pierre “Catéchisme,” Encyclopédie nouvelle, 3:324.Google Scholar
39. Leroux, Pierre, “Confession,” Encyclopédie nouvelle, 3: 756.Google Scholar
40. Ibid., p. 758.
41. Ibid., pp. 759–760.
42. Ibid., p. 756.
43. Ibid., p. 757.
44. Ibid, p. 760; Leroux, , De l'origine démocratique du chistianisme, pp 54–55Google Scholar
45. Leroux, , De l'humanité, 2:683–685, 745, 994–995Google Scholar; Leroux, , De l'origine démocratique du christianisme, pp. 56–58, 91–98.Google Scholar
46. Leroux, , De l'orgine démocratique du christianisme, pp. 93–95Google Scholar; Leroux, Pierre, “Basile (Saint),” Encyclopédie nouvelle, 2:463–466.Google Scholar
47. Leroux, Pierre, “Augustin,” Encyclopédie nouveile, 2:252.Google Scholar
48. Ibid., pp. 251, 253.
49. Leroux, Pierre, “Athanase (Saint),” Encyclopédie nouvelle, 2:191–194Google Scholar; Leroux, Pierre, De la doctrine de la perfectibililé, in Oeuvres de Pierre Leroux, 1825–1850, 2 vols. (Paris: Gustave Sandré, 1850–1851), 2:210–215.Google Scholar
50. Leroux, Pierre, “Des rapports du christianisme, avcc la doctrine philosophique du progrès,” Revue Encyclopédique 61 (01 1835): 123 n.Google Scholar: Leroux, , De l'humanité, 1:249, 254Google Scholar; 2:896–897.
51. Leroux, , Revue Indépendante 1 (11 1, 1841): 4Google Scholar: Leroux, , De l'origine démocratique du christianisime, pp. 97–99Google Scholar: Leroux, Pierre, “Les poésies de Pétrarque,” Revue Indépendante 3 (05 1842): 298–300Google Scholar; Leroux, Pierre, “Arminianisme,” Encyclopédie nouvelle, 2:56–57.Google Scholar
52. Leroux, , De l'origine démocratique du christianisme, pp. 20–26Google Scholar; Leroux, Pierre, “Du cours de la philosophie de Schelling: aperçu de la situation de la philosophie en Allemagne,” Revue Indépendante 3 (05 1842): 298–300Google Scholar: Leroux, , Encyclopédie nouvelle. 2:56–57.Google Scholar
53. Leroux, Pierre, Malthus et les économistes ou Y aura-t-il toujours des pauvres? (Boussac: Imprimerie de Pierre Leroux, 1849), pp. 77–82Google Scholar; Leroux, Pierre, “Bonaventure (Saint),” Encyclopédie nouvelle, 2:785–786Google Scholar; Leroux, , De l'humanité, 1:197, 201–207Google Scholar. The book Malthus et les éconoimistes first appeared as a series of articles in the Revue Socials in1845 and 1846.
54. Leroux, , De l'humanité, 1:207–212.Google Scholar
55. Leroux, Pierre, “Bénédiction,” Encyoclopédie nouvelle, 2:562–564.Google Scholar
56. Leroux, , Encyclopédie nouvelle, 3:755.Google Scholar
57. Ibid., pp. 755, 767.
58. Ibid., pp. 762–765.
59. Leroux, Pierre, “Préface,” Revue Encyclopédique 60 (10 1833): xxviii–xxxGoogle Scholar; Leroux, , De l'origine démoratique du christianisme, pp. 109–110.Google Scholar
60. Isambert, Gaston, Les idées socialise en France de 1815 à 1848: le socialisme fondé sur la fraternité et l'union des classes (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1905).Google Scholar
61. Leroux, , De l'égalité, p. x.Google Scholar
- 2
- Cited by