| When Edmund Burke declared in 1790 that the French Revolution was made up of an atheistic "cabal" of philosophers, he initiated what would remain a stereotype of the revolutionaries for not only the duration of the Revolution, but for the next two centuries and continuing---the claim that atheism was a key component of the French Revolution and its ideals. When the Revolution radicalized three years later in response to counterrevolution and war, violence against priests, churches, and practicing Catholics escalated exponentially, culminating in a spectacular Festival of Reason where the Revolution appeared to make Burke a prophet. This "atheism" reigned supreme only briefly, and within months the term "atheist" was used to brand certain radicals as immoral aristocrats and traitors, leading to their deaths on the guillotine.;This dissertation examines atheism as a state-of-being, ideological concept, and political tool during the eighteenth century in France and attempts to answer several questions regarding the role of atheism during the French Revolution. What did it mean to be an atheist during this period? Was there an atheistic strain in the ideology of the Revolution? Were there atheists involved within the political sphere---speaking in the National Assembly and Convention, participating in the Jacobin clubs and municipal government, acting as representatives-on-mission, and spreading atheism around the nation? Was the dechristianization movement specifically an atheistic phenomenon? Finally, how did the fear of atheism become a tool for not only counterrevolutionaries, but the leaders of the French Revolution itself? Ultimately, atheists prove to be present and accounted for, but only as a small minority, with atheism itself being mostly a specter used as a rhetorical tool by various factions for spreading fear and distrust. |
