In:
Dix-huitième Siècle, PERSEE Program, Vol. 34, No. 1 ( 2002), p. 107-120
Abstract:
Between 1756 and 1786, the Journal encyclopédique questioned the legiti¬ macy of Christianity's claim to universal empire. It doubted whether the study of Christianity could become religious science, and whether it was capable of providing an acceptable knowledge concerning nature, humanity and its history. In physics (A.G. de Forbin), history (dom Poncet, Pontoppidan, Bayer, Struchmeyer, Salchi) or rhetoric (Formey, Sigaud, Ducontant, Barruel, Para du Phanjas), either learning was not encouraged by faith, or faith would lose its rigour in contact with knowledge. Considering that the Church had not adapted itself to demands for a 'kinder5 justice, or accepted the autonomy of the secular power, the journal called on it to integrate the new fashionable charity seen in the sermons of Le Couturier, Girardot, Formey, Baer, Surian or Maury. It detached Christianity from its singular spirituality and extracted its moral elements which were useful for society, following Scottish theologians like Fordyce or Blair ; it thus substituted an evangelical Christianity for a misanthropic and tragic religion.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0070-6760
DOI:
10.3406/dhs.2002.2468
Language:
French
Publisher:
PERSEE Program
Publication Date:
2002
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2379849-X
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2726791-X
SSG:
8
SSG:
7,30
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