Church and Culture in Seventeenth-Century France

A study of the involvement of the Catholic Church in the cultural life of France in the seventeenth century.

Henry Phillips (Author)

9780521892995, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 2 May 2002

348 pages
23.4 x 15.8 x 2.5 cm, 0.625 kg

' … a perceptive synthesis … a welcome addition and … a useful corrective to studies of the nature and impact of the Catholic reform.' English Historical Review

Church and Culture in Seventeenth-Century France brings together the social, religious and intellectual history of the Grand Siecle and focuses on the involvement of the Church in a variety of cultural domains, including literature, art, censorship and ideas. It explores the limits as well as the extent of the Church's influence, especially in its attempt to impose orthodoxy in all areas and on all sections of society. Given that orthodoxy determines the believer's inclusion or exclusion from the Church, thus implying the notion of boundaries in a context of constraint, the study is conceived according to a number of spaces. The notion of space is sometimes interpreted literally, e.g. Port-Royal, the school and the church building, and sometimes metaphorically, e.g. orthodoxy itself, science and theology. The book also deals with religious attitudes to libertinage, atheism and deism, and with aspects of French Protestantism.

Introduction
1. The spaces of belief
2. The spaces of representation
3. The spaces of education
4. The spaces of dissension
5. The space of ideas
6. The spaces of discussion
7. The spaces of hostility: belief
8. The spaces of hostility: unbelief
9. The space of the word
Conclusion
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]