Sacred and Secular Agency in Early Modern France: Fragments of Religion

by Sanja Perovic

Publisher:

Continuum

, 2011

The opposition between 'religion' and 'modernity' has long held the status of a self-evident truth. Recently, however, there has been a growing realization that religion has not died out and may be more compatible with modern society than previously assumed.This development is particularly striking in France where laïcité has long been the official doctrine.

 

How did religion become opposed to the secular and modern? If distinctions between sacred and secular are less adequate than commonly believed, how do these two categories interact?Addressing these questions, this book explores the persistence of religious categories on the cultural landscape of early modern France. France was the birthplace of Europe's first secular state and the centre of two movements considered indispensable to secularization - the Enlightenment and Revolution of 1789. As such France is vital for understanding how religious antecedents informed modern political institutions and ideals. By uncovering the role of religion in shaping categories most often associated with modernity this book offers a new perspective on the master narrative of secularization.

Features

Offers a vital historical perspective to contemporary debates about laïcité in France.
Contributes to the the growing scholarly discourse on religion and secular politics in contemporary theory.
Rethinks assumptions of the secularization thesis and its production of historical divisions.

Contents

Introduction Sanja Perovic \ 1. Robert R. Palmer's Catholics and Unbelievers in Eighteenth-Century France: An Overdue Tribute Dale K. Van Kley \ 2. The Regency of Catherine de Medici: Political Reason during the Wars of Religion Denis Crouzet \ 3. Religion and Representation in Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron Ellen McClure \ 4. The Gallican Mines: Martine de Bertereau's Restitution de Pluton, Astrology, Providence and Empire during the reign of Louis XIII Erik Thomson \ 5. Resacralizing the Self: Mysticism, Materialism, and Personhood in Eighteenth-Century France Charly Coleman \ 6. Permutations of the Theological-Political Analogy: Political Voluntarism, 'Transfer,' and Secularization Stephanie Frank \ 7. The French Revolution as World Religion Sanja Perovic \ 8. The Secularization of Execution: Heresy, Sacrifice and the Inquisition from Montesquieu to Maistre Francesco Manzini \ 9. Religion and the French Revolution; or, The Politics of Incarnation Craig Carson \ Postface: The Signature that Remains Sophie Fuggle \ Bibliography \ Index

Praise for Sacred and Secular Agency in Early Modern France

"This is an exciting and important book which overturns a series of platitudes about both early modernity and France today. It marks a timely intervention in the field of French studies and more broadly in historical debates about secularization. Perovic's collection makes an invigorating and illuminating contribution to early modern studies, but more importantly it proposes that we think about the relation between early and late modernity in a new way."

'A stimulating, timely, and admirably interdisciplinary intervention in the ongoing debates concerning the secularizing evolution from the Renaissance to the Revolution, this volume will keenly interest - and amply reward - scholars and students from across a wide range of early-modern fields.'

Product Details

• Title: Sacred and Secular Agency in Early Modern France: Fragments of Religion
• Author: Sanja Perovic
• Publisher: Continuum
• Print Publication Date: 2011
• Logos Release Date: 2024
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9781441189745, 9781472511485, 1472511484, 1441189742
• Resource ID: LLS:9781441189745
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-05-16T22:08:23Z

About the Author

Sanja Perovic is Lecturer in the French Department, King's College London, UK.