The Genius of Christianity
The Genius of Christianity, or Beauties of the Christian Religion is a work by the French author François-René de Chateaubriand, written during his exile in England in the 1790s as a defense of the Catholic faith, then under attack during the French Revolution. It was first published in France in 1802, after Chateaubriand returned to France following Napoleon general amnesty for émigrés who had fled the Revolution. Napoleon, who had recently signed the Concordat 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 into internal exile.
In The Genius of Christianity, Chateaubriand defends the wisdom and beauty of Christianity against the attacks on it by French Enlightenment 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 on art and literature: it was a major inspiration for the Romantic movement.
Work
The book emerged from Chateaubriand's attempt to understand the causes of the French Revolution, which had led to the deaths of many of his friends and family members. Sometime in the late 1790s, Chateaubriand had reverted to the Catholic faith of his childhood. He felt that France had lost its way during the Enlightenment period, when leading intellectuals, such as Voltaire, 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 for Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who had "a shadow of religion". For Chateaubriand, Voltaire is an inferior playwright to Jean Racine because Voltaire was not a Christian.
Structure and contents
Chateaubriand divided Génie du christianisme into four parts:- Part One: Dogmas and Doctrine. Divided into six books: Mysteries and Sacraments; Virtues and Moral Laws; Truth of the Scriptures, the Fall of Man; Truth of the Scriptures, Objections against the Moral System of Moses; the Existence of God proved by the Marvels of Nature: Immortality of the Soul, proved by Morals and Sentiments.
- Part Two: The Poetry of Christianity. Divided into five books: General Survey of Christian Epics; Poetry in Relation to Human Characters; Poetry in Relation to Human Passions ; On the Marvellous, or Poetry in Relation to Supernatural Beings; the Bible and Homer.
- Part Three: Fine Arts and Literature. Divided into five books: Fine Arts; Philosophy; History; Eloquence; Harmonies of the Christian Religion with Scenes of Nature and the Passions of the Human Heart.
- Part Four: Ritual. Divided into six books: Churches, Ornaments, Singing, Prayers, Solemnities, etc.; Tombs; General Survey of the Clergy; Missions; Military Orders or Chivalry; Services Rendered to Society by the Clergy and the Christian Religion in General.