This article is excerpted from The Torture of the French Revolution by Jacques Sol, the Commercial Press, March 20 15.
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For a long time, people have always believed that the Great Revolution caused political and social faults, but at the same time it did not destroy the continuity in the cultural and religious fields. In recent years, this view has been greatly revised, and the spiritual changes in that period have received more attention. So, did the Great Revolution really achieve de-Christianization in France, shake the traditional family concept and moral order, and create new French people?
Did the Great Revolution Christianize France?
Jean de Viguerie gave a positive answer through his in-depth research, which revealed the effectiveness of the revolution in persecuting the church. By 1799, only sporadic areas still have religion, and people there lead a hard life because of their beliefs. A considerable number of people have stopped their daily religious activities. Compared with 1789, in some areas of northwest and central China, the number of people attending the Easter Eucharist decreased by one third. Working on Sunday began to become a routine. Many churches are still empty after reopening. According to La, religion was completely destroyed in 1808. So, does the above evidence "confirm" the victory of the great revolution of Christianization? Vickery believes that at every stage of the Great Revolution, we can see a force separating believers from priests and preventing them from attending the sacraments. He believes that behind this is an orderly and efficient persecution system.
However, these statements underestimate the resistance of the Catholic church to the Great Revolution, such as the anti-Christian uprising, the activities of the secret church and its priests, and the implementation of sacraments. So the proportion of unweaned babies is very small. Similarly, people hold mass in difficult situations in extremely ingenious ways. Secular people often perform some duties as priests, and their pioneering work shows their attachment to religious assemblies and strong feelings for the church. In addition, we can also see the resistance of Christians and the sacrifice of priests. Thousands of people were executed for refusing to take an oath against their conscience. All this shows the powerful spiritual strength of French Catholicism, and people respond to the executioner with prayer and piety. It seems unfair to regard the heroic behavior of martyrs as only the behavior of a few people, because behind this is the general dissatisfaction of most people with the government's anti-religious policy. It is this collective attitude that doomed the reconstruction of the church and the return of faith.
It is believed that the success of the de-Christianization movement among the people is due to its unprecedented achievements. This bourgeois action did not get any response from the people. /kloc-the evolution of the image of Jesus in France in the 0 th and 8 th centuries shows that the sacred political view continued from the old system to the Great Revolution. Many Christians were influenced by the spirit of enlightenment, and the commotion of 1789 was warmly welcomed by some people. Fu Xie once said that it was the nobles who crucified the son of God. Constitutionalists and deniers share the same belief, and jacobins did not forget to insist on the equality of evangelicals. Among men without trousers, the devotion to the prophet Nazareth did not disappear because of his loyalty to Mara. After the "hot moon incident", the reverence for this sacred legislator is increasing day by day, and it is even regarded as a model of all systems. This trend of reconciliation has been praised by chateaubriand. In fact, reading the Bible has long been an important enlightenment in life in the patriarchal society described by Restivo de la Bretoni at the end of 18. In the process of the great revolution, its role is still not to be underestimated. Compared with the success of the Christianization Movement, the revival of eschatology and the spread of moral education from the Bible are more noticeable. The rediscovery of the true meaning of western beliefs is one of the greatest achievements of this period.
If we only regard the church as an ideological tool of the country, we can't understand the above phenomenon. Louis? Rainer told us, 1789, how eager the educated bourgeoisie in Lyon was to be reborn, and they were surrounded by strong religious feelings. After witnessing the doomsday scene that followed, Baranci and Ampal, who were frustrated and deceived, began to use fate to explain the immediate events. Under the above background, the object of belief changed from revolution to counter-revolution. The change of faith provides an opportunity for the revival of Catholicism, and the ideology in the future restoration period can be interpreted as the revenge of faith on reason. Although the oath church embodies this revenge, it is often more adapted to political modernity than the old monarchy. Counter-revolutionary Depth Charge is not the royal family and its image, but Christianity and its truth. Its most loyal followers insist on eternity rather than tradition. From this, we can understand the role of the collective conversion of French intellectuals in 1800, which is the response of the revived newcomers to the chaos brought about by the revolution. This kind of chaos began with quarrelling resistance against priests as educators, and ending this resistance can be regarded as a return to childhood religious behavior. In the face of the major crisis of civilization, this desire for simplicity marks the rejection of rationalism that has been won and established. Like chateaubriand, the younger generation began to accept prophetic illusions. Correspondingly, it was a period of strong religious thoughts, which deeply influenced the beliefs of this era. Le Génie du christianisme, published in 1802, advocates the reconciliation between the modern world and faith, which coincides with Hegel's view. After the disappointing Great Revolution, most people of insight returned to the religion transformed by irrational emotions.