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ABSTRACT
While many scholars have realized that the Enlightenment period was much more religious than previously thought, the deists are still seen as basically secular figures who believed in a distant and inactive deity. This article shows that the hundred and thirteen French Revolutionary deists who wrote prayers and hymns to God believed in a caring, loving, and active deity. They maintained that God wanted people to be free, and so God actively helped the French Revolution by leading the French armies to victory and revealing enemy plots. The majority of these prayers and hymns were said at government-sponsored religious festivals. It is a mistake, however, to dismiss this religious language as being about sacralizing the new nation. Instead, there were places in the festivals where individuals could express their own religious views. Furthermore, most of these prayers and hymns were written while Maximilien Robespierre was pushing his deist civil religion and labelling irreligious people as enemies of the French republic. However, the same views about God were expressed after his death by the Theophilanthropists. Thus, these deists were not merely echoing the party line while Robespierre was alive, but were expressing their true religious feelings.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Clark, “Secularization and Modernization”; David Sorkin, The Religious Enlightenment.
2. Lehner, The Catholic Enlightenment, 2.
3. Clark, English Society 1688–1832, 280.
4. Sorkin, Religious Enlightenment, 315.
5. Fischer, “‘Religion Governed by Terror,’” paragraph 4.
6. Champion, “Deism,” 441.
7. Barnett, The Enlightenment and Religion, 7, 11–27, 68–70.
8. Brissot, Mémoires de Brissot, 109–11, & Brissot, Lettres Philosophique, 3–4, 50–55, 47–8; Paganel, Essai historique et critique, 457–65; Bénoist-Lamothe, Discours sur la religion, 17–22, 5–8, 16; Lanthenas, Déclaration des devoirs de l’homme, 7–8, 28–33, 47, 21–26; for Jean-François Sobry, Desforges, Navoigille, Regnier Sr., see Jean-François Sobry, Le Culte Libre, 2, 8; for Bouvet, Auber, Hebert, Belhost, Thierry, and Canu, see Archives parlementaires de 1787 à 1860 (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1952–1976): series 1, 91:593.
9. Waligore, Spirituality Deists, 294–9; Waligore, “Catalog Deists.”
10. Waligore, Spirituality Deists, 283–6; Waligore, “List Deists Prayers Hymns.”
11. Sonnleithner, “More Voltaire than Rousseau,” 184, 183, 188.
12. Lehner, Enlightened Monks.
13. Burson, Rise and Fall.
14. Plan de la fête à l’Être supreme, 7.
15. Deschamps, Hymne à l’Etre Suprême, 1.
16. Rochon, “Hymn to God,” 48–49.
17. Saint Ange, “Hymn to God,” 42–43.
18. Rubigni, Archives parlementaires, 88:460.
19. Lepetit, Archives parlementaires, 92:91.
20. Walters, Revolutionary Deists, 261.
21. Serant, Pièces de poésies, 1–2.
22. Hymne à l’Etre suprême, 1, 3.
23. Thiébaut, Catéchisme des républicains, 67.
24. Henriquez, Histoires et morales choisies, 71.
25. Waligore, “List Deists Prayers Hymns,” List #3, page 6.
26. Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, 280–282.
27. Aulard, The French Revolution, 191.
28. Waligore, “List Deists Prayers Hymns,” List #3, page 6.
29. Ozouf, Festivals and the French Revolution, 280.
30. Plan de la fête, 8.
31. Archives parlementaires, 93:166.
32. Plan de la fête, 12
33. Liberté, égalité, 13–14.
34. Archives parlementaires, 83:485–487.
35. Ozouf, “Revolutionary Religion,” 565.
36. Détail des cérémonies; Instruction particulière.
37. Waligore, “List Deists Prayers Hymns,” List #1, page 5.
38. Trouvé, “Hymn to God,” 324.
39. Deschamps, Hymne à l’Etre Suprême, 3.
40. Bellecour the Younger, Discours prononcé, 4–5.
41. Chénier, Hymne à la Etre, 2.
42. Dieny, Archives parlementaires, 95:223.
43. Archives parlementaires, 91:299.
44. Jullien, “Ode to God,” 37.
45. Beuzelin, Couplets destines, 7.
46. Mandar, Le génie, 111.
47. Suzor, Briel, Chrétien, Courtin, Lherbeaudieu, and Bois, Archives parlementaires, 91:520.
48. Archives parlementaires, 91–2. For a representative sample, see 91:278–279, 131–132, 414, 502–503 & 466.
49. See Waligore, “List French Revolutionary deists,” List #4, 6.
50. Mathiez, Le Théophilanthropie, 196.
51. Mathiez, Le Théophilanthropie, 648–655, 688–692, 703–704.
52. Jainchill, Reimagining Politics, 89.
53. Neely, A Concise History, 232.
54. Trottier, Exposé de la cérémonie, 8.
55. Chemin-Dupontès, Rituel, 25–26.
56. Chemin-Dupontès, Rituel, 29–30.
57. Chemin-Dupontès, Année religieuse, 113–116.
58. Chemin-Dupontès, Rituel, 92.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Joseph Waligore
Joseph Waligore has a Ph. D. in philosophy from Syracuse University. He taught philosophy and religious studies at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point for twenty years before retiring. He has published one book, The Spirituality of the English and American Deists: How God Became Good (Lexington Books, 2023), and three articles about deism. He also maintains a website, www. Enlightenmentdeism.com.