{"title":"FRENCH PROTESTANTISM AND ITS AMBIVALENT ATTITUDE TOWARD CULTURE","authors":"P. Wells","doi":"10.51688/vc6.2.2019.art1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Protestantism in France has an ambiguous attitude to the surrounding culture, because of its position as a small minority. The other forces present are Roman Catholic authoritarianism and the liberal free-thinking of Enlightenment humanism, represented by the likes of Voltaire and Rousseau. The paradox is that since the Revolution in 1789, which was anti-royal and anti-religious, when Protestantism has sided with the majority Roman Church it has undermined its Reformed identity, and when it has sided with libertarian free-thinking it has undermined its Christian identity. This remains a feature of French Protestantism until the present day. As a result of this tension, the thought of one of France’s greatest thinkers, John Calvin, became virtually unknown, not only in French culture and society as a whole, but also within French Protestantism itself. \nKEYWORDS: Protestant, Reformed, French, Catholic","PeriodicalId":129165,"journal":{"name":"VERBUM CHRISTI: JURNAL TEOLOGI REFORMED INJILI","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2019-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"VERBUM CHRISTI: JURNAL TEOLOGI REFORMED INJILI","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.51688/vc6.2.2019.art1","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Protestantism in France has an ambiguous attitude to the surrounding culture, because of its position as a small minority. The other forces present are Roman Catholic authoritarianism and the liberal free-thinking of Enlightenment humanism, represented by the likes of Voltaire and Rousseau. The paradox is that since the Revolution in 1789, which was anti-royal and anti-religious, when Protestantism has sided with the majority Roman Church it has undermined its Reformed identity, and when it has sided with libertarian free-thinking it has undermined its Christian identity. This remains a feature of French Protestantism until the present day. As a result of this tension, the thought of one of France’s greatest thinkers, John Calvin, became virtually unknown, not only in French culture and society as a whole, but also within French Protestantism itself.
KEYWORDS: Protestant, Reformed, French, Catholic