Atheism in France, 1650-1729, Volume I: The Orthodox Sources of Disbelief

by Alan Charles Kors

Although most historians have sought the roots of atheism in the history of "free thought," Alan Charles Kors contends that attacks on the existence of God were generated above all by the vitality and controversies of orthodox theistic culture itself. In this first volume of a planned two-volume inquiry into the sources and nature of atheism, he shows that orthodox teachers and apologists in seventeenth-century France were obliged by the logic of their philosophical and pedagogical systems to create many models of speculative atheism for heuristic purposes. Unusual in its broad sampling of the religious literature of the early-modern learned world, this book reveals that the "great fratricide" among bitterly competing schools of Aristotelian, Cartesian, and Malebranchist Christian thought encouraged theologians to refute each other's proofs of God and to depict the ideas of their theological opponents as atheistic. Such "fratricide" was not new in the history of Christendom, but Kors demonstrates that its influence was dramatically amplified by the expanding literacy of the seventeenth century. Capturing the attention of the reading public, theological debate provided intellectual grounds for the disbelief of the first generation of atheistic thinkers.

Originally published in 1990.

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408 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1990

About the author

Henry Charles Lea Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught the intellectual history of the 17th and 18th centuries. He has received both the Lindback Foundation Award and the Ira Abrams Memorial Award for distinguished college teaching. Kors graduated A.B. summa cum laude at Princeton University in 1964, and received his M.A. (1965) and Ph.D. (1968) in European history at Harvard University.
Kors has written on the history of skeptical, atheistic, and materialist thought in 17th and 18th-century France, on the Enlightenment in general, on the history of European witchcraft beliefs, and on academic freedom. He was also the Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment, which was published in four volumes by Oxford University Press in 2002.
Kors co-founded – with civil rights advocate Harvey A. Silverglate – and served from 2000 to 2006 as chairman of the board of directors of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).

Reviews

[Kenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a seriously impressive study on the period of transition in early modern Europe from the point at which, so Lucien Febvre once remarked, atheism was literally unthinkable, to the first known, overt atheist (Jean Meslier).

Kors' argument is based mostly on direct engagement with the primary literature (17th century journals, notebooks, and theological treatises); for that reason, apart from in the introduction, there is limited commentary on rival theories. Fortunately, Kors' account stands well enough on its own legs, without needing to specifically counter the work of other historians.

The essential thesis of this book is as follows. Some have been puzzled by the emergence of atheism in early 18th century Europe. One might think it the result, for example, of inner cultural decadence, or external cultural influence. Within a world in which God's existence was presupposed with the utmost certainty, how doubt concerning God's existence genuinely was produced is a difficult matter. But, Kors argues, the main source of unbelief in Enlightenment France was not a mistake or a misapplication of principles or an external influence. It was the obvious consequence of a culture which took its Scholastic duties seriously, while those duties included seeking indubitable proof of the existence of God among competing schools and theological traditions.

Surprisingly, Kors argues that the role of scientific development in the emergence of Enlightenment atheism has been largely over-emphasised. Newton saw his own work as complementary to theological projects and, although not all lines of religious argumentation were supported by the scientific developments of the time, it was not necessary to conclude from those developments anything like the claim that the universe was self-regulating and eternal or, in other words, that God's existence was not needed to explain natural regularity.

Greater in importance than any speculative dispute or scientific discovery, Kors says, was the popularisation of travel literature - the product of travelling priests, merchants, and dignitaries to foreign lands, populated by peoples of different faiths. Alongside an expanding reading public (partly generated by religious initiatives to produce more learned believers) and the birth of the popular journal, scepticism among priests and theologians was released into the public from its inoculated, academic atmosphere. Just so, what was first a routine, even mandatory exercise for the faith's elite resulted in its own negation.

The weapon of scholastic dispute, whose wielders had long assumed the viewpoint of a speculative atheist while simultaneously denying the coherence of that atheist's worldview, gradually drew them into existence until their reality was no longer deniable, but a greater issue than any of the internecine squabbles of the Catholic orders.

[JR Roach · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly lucid exploration of how debates within early modern French theology and philosophy unwittingly developed the conceptual resources of what would become open atheism. In the process you get excellent introductions to the scholasticism and Cartesianism, what made each compelling to their supporters and repulsive to their opponents, and a broader sense of why the stakes of (usually) intra-Catholic debates were so high.