_TP_-_HathiTrust.jpg) Title page of the 1802 edition | |
| Original title | Le Génie du christianisme |
|---|---|
| Language | French |
Publication date | 1802 |
| Text | The Genius of Christianity at Internet Archive |
The Genius of Christianity, or Beauties of the Christian Religion (French:Le Génie du christianisme, ou Beautés de la religion chrétienne) is a work by the French authorFrançois-René de Chateaubriand, written during his exile in England in the 1790s as a defense of theCatholic faith, then under attack during theFrench Revolution. It was first published in France in 1802, after Chateaubriand returned to France followingNapoleon's generalamnesty forémigrés who had fled the Revolution. Napoleon, who had recently signed theConcordat with the pope, initially made use of Chateaubriand's book as propaganda to win support among French Catholics. Within five years, he would quarrel with the author and send him intointernal exile.
InThe Genius of Christianity, Chateaubriand defends the wisdom and beauty of Christianity against the attacks on it by FrenchEnlightenment philosophers and revolutionary politicians. The book had an immense influence on nineteenth-century culture and not just on religious life. In fact, it might be said its greatest impact was onart andliterature: it was a major inspiration for theRomantic movement.[1][2]
The book emerged from Chateaubriand's attempt to understand thecauses of the French Revolution, which had led to the deaths of many of his friends and family members. Sometime in the late 1790s, Chateaubriand hadreverted to theCatholic faith of his childhood. He felt that France had lost its way during the Enlightenment period, when leading intellectuals, such asVoltaire, were hostile to traditional religion. In the work, Chateaubriand aims to prove "Christianity comes from God, because it is excellent". With that objective in mind, he is particularly interested in the artistic contributions of the Christian religion, comparing them with ancient and pagan civilizations. The principal theme of the book is that "only Christianity is able to explain progress in arts and letters".
Chateaubriand accuses the writers of the eighteenth century of misunderstanding God. He makes an exception forJean-Jacques Rousseau, who had "a shadow of religion". For Chateaubriand, Voltaire is an inferior playwright toJean Racine because Voltaire was not a Christian.
Chateaubriand dividedGénie du christianisme into four parts:
The original edition ofGénie du christianisme also contained twonovellas by Chateaubriand,René andAtala, both of them romantic tales aboutAmerican Indians. The novellas had already been published separately. Together with the related storyLes Natchez, which went unpublished until 1827, these books continued to bring fame to Chateaubriand throughout his life.
Génie du christianisme had a considerable influence on the history of literary and religious ideas in nineteenth-century France. Written in aClassical style, but earlyRomantic in sensibility, it glorified new sources of inspiration, such asGothic architecture and the great epics of theMiddle Ages. As David Cairns writes: "Beyond its specific purpose,Génie du christianisme set a current of sympathy flowing between the author and a whole generation of young French men and women, kindling their imaginations over a wide range of feelings and ideas: the power of the great epic writers, Nature in its immense diversity and grandeur, the poetry of ruins, the spell of the distant past, the beauty of immemorial popular rituals and the haunting melancholy of the music accompanying them, the pangs of awakening consciousness and the perils and ardours of the solitary adolescent soul. More than any other work, it was the primer of early French Romanticism". Besides this, the book served as a model for the renewal of FrenchCatholicism, inspiring numerous authors, includingDom Guéranger andFélicité Robert de La Mennais.
