Chapter V: Religion

(1) _Conditions of the Voltairean attack_.

Two elements underlying Voltaire’s enmity to Christianity 216

Failure of Catholicism as a social force 217

Utility of Protestantism in softening the transition 218

Compared with repression of free debate in France 219

Voltaire did not assail modern theosophies 221

The good inextricably bound up with the bad in the old
system 224

Jesuits and Jansenists 225

Voltaire declared the latter to be the worst foes 227

Morellet’s Manual for Inquisitors 228

A reflex of the criminal jurisprudence of the time 229

Cases of Rochette, Calas, and Sirven 229

Of La Barre 230

Fervour of Voltaire’s indignation 232

Protests against cynical acquiescence 233

Disappointment of the philosophers, and their courage 235

The reactionary fanaticism a proof of the truth of Voltaire’s
allegations 237

Necessity of transforming spiritual basis of thought 238

Voltaire’s abstention from the temporal sphere 239

His chief defect as leader of the attack 241

Crippling his historic imagination 243

The just historic calm impossible, until Voltaire had
pressed a previous question 245

(2) _His method_.

His instruments purely literary and dialectical 248

Leaves metaphysics of religion, and fastens on alleged
records 250

The other side fell back on the least worthy parts of their
system 251

Hence the narrow and literal character of Voltaire’s
objections 252

His attack essentially the attack of the English deists 255

Rationalistic questions in scriptural and ecclesiastical
records 257

In doctrine 258

Argument from comparison with other myths 259

His neglect of primitive religions 260

His conviction that monotheism is the first religious
form 261

Difficulties which he thus passed over 264

Hume’s view 266

Voltaire did not assail the general ideas of Christianity 267

Such as the idea of evil inherent in matter 270

And the idea of a deity as then conceived 271

Hence the acerbity of the debate 273

And the want of permanence in Voltaire’s writings compared
with Bossuet or Pascal 274

His criticism on Dante 275

(3) _His approximation to a solution_.

Voltairean deism 276

Never accepted by the mass of men 278

Nor is it likely to be accepted by them 279

Voltaire’s imperfect adherence to the deistical idea 280

Reasons for this 282

Does not accept belief in the immortality of the soul 286

Asserts less than Rousseau, and denies less than
Diderot 287

A popular movement begun by Bayle’s Dictionary 288

Compromising method of Rousseau 290

Voltaire’s view of an atheistical society 291

His belief in the social sufficiency of an analytic spirit 292

Synthesis necessary, but more than one is possible 293