Table Of ContentCiviC CateChisms and Reason
in the FRenCh Revolution
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Civic Catechisms and Reason
in the French Revolution
adRian veliCu
Karlstad University, Sweden
© adrian velicu 2010
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
adrian velicu has asserted his right under the Copyright, designs and Patents act, 1988, to
be identified as the author of this work.
Published by
ashgate Publishing limited ashgate Publishing Company
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union Road 101 Cherry street
Farnham Burlington
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
velicu, adrian.
Civic catechisms and reason in the French Revolution.
1. France–history–Revolution, 1789–1799. 2. France–Politics and government–1789–
1799. 3. Communication in politics–France–history–18th century. 4. Religion and
politics–France–history–18th century.
i. title
944’.04-dc22
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
velicu, adrian.
Civic catechisms and reason in the French Revolution / adrian velicu.
p. cm.
includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7546-6998-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7546-9829-6
(ebook) 1. France—History—Revolution, 1789–1799—Social aspects. 2. France—
Intellectual life—18th century. 3. France—Politics and government—1789-1799.
4. France—Social conditions—18th century. 5. Reason—Political aspects—France—
History—18th century. 6. Reason—Social aspects—France—History—18th century.
7. Civics, French—Study and teaching—History—18th century. 8. Catechisms, French—
history and criticism. i. title.
dC158.8.v45 2010
944.04—dc22
2010021525
ISBN 9780754669982 (hbk)
V
ISBN 9780754698296 (ebk)
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
introduction 1
1 Catechisms: a Retrospective 19
2 Reason: usage and meaning 39
3 in two minds: Constitutional monarchy 57
4 Republican Questions 89
5 Republican answers 109
6 after thermidor 135
Concluding Remarks 153
Bibliography 157
Index 167
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Professor Bo Lindberg for detecting merit and supporting
this work at an early stage. The late stage of the book has benefited from the
valuable suggestions and encouragement of two anonymous reviewers for ashgate
Publishing. In between, Yvette and Per-Magnus Johansson have kindly facilitated
a couple of séjours in Paris for collecting material. the swedish Research Council
has financed the research for this book.
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introduction
Reason, will, power, education, compulsion: here is a sequence with a promising
start and an unfortunate ending. it is also the sequence that structures this study of
an unsettling paradox of the French Revolution. liberating thought, yet inculcating
the notions of a new political culture were both part of the intellectual world of the
Revolution. The radical regime attacked the old institutionalized forms of Catholic
worship and its forms of instruction, although the catechetical outlook with its
dogmatic mindset survived as an important form of political education. Consequently,
there emerged jarring juxtapositions such as ‘revolutionary catechisms’.
the promise of intellectual emancipation that reason could achieve after 1789
came up against a political pragmatism that required conspicuous manifestations
of loyalty. verbal and visual displays added rhetorical and symbolic dimensions to
the crisp political principles derived from ‘reason and nature’. the revolutionaries
stated concrete aims in quasi-metaphorical ways, for instance, the creation of a
new individual or the regeneration of the nation. once the political will inspired
by reason was backed by power, the way was open for attempts to turn utopian
intentions into reality. education and, later, a more varied pedagogical offensive
were to achieve the transformation of people’s minds.
two main choices were available: educating the people in order to develop
their intellectual abilities irrespective of other criteria, and educating them in
the spirit of political loyalty. these were Condorcet’s and Robespierre’s options,
respectively (with Robespierre’s as the prevailing one in different versions). The
need for radical pedagogical reforms stimulated the production of legislative
bills, of comprehensive proposals and of didactic texts for civic education.
this search for new pedagogical approaches ended up, ironically enough, by
including the catechetical method as well. the coercive strain running through
these emerging forms of political education accompanied from the beginning
the campaign of intellectual emancipation that constantly invoked reason. Such
conflicting intellectual cross-currents resulted in an unresolved tension at the very
heart of the French Revolution. the present study outlines this tension, discusses
its implications and suggests an explanation of a fundamental self-undermining
feature of the Revolution.
the explanation rests on the paradox built into the revolutionary values,
concepts and practice: regeneration meant freeing the citizen’s mind while
counting on the implicit effect of the catechetical drill. i suggest that arguments on
crucial revolutionary undertakings – regenerating the people, changing society on
rational principles – resorted to a series of oxymorons whose (apparent) absurdity
was resolved in the rhetoric-saturated intellectual world of the Revolution. these
uneasy juxtapositions were frequently the result of efforts to achieve an effect, be it
