The Structure of French Romantic Histories of Religions Author(s): Arthur McCalla Reviewed work(s): Source: Numen, Vol.

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THE STRUCTURE OF FRENCH ROMANTIC HISTORIES OF RELIGIONS ARTHUR MCCALLA

Summary This articleanalyzesthe historiesof religions of Louis de Bonald, AntoineFabre d'Olivet, Pierre-SimonBallanche,and Ferdinandd'Eckstein. Ratherthan offer yet it seeks to establish a frameworkby which to anotherdefinition of Romanticism, Frenchhistories of religionsthat renderintelligiblea set of early nineteenth-century have been largely ignoredin the historyof the study of religion. It establishestheir that they are built on the common structural mutual affinity by demonstrating elements of an essentialist ontology,an epistemology that eludes Kantianpessimism, and a philosophyof historythatdepictsdevelopmentas the unfoldingof a preexistent essence accordingto an a priori pattern.Consequentupon these structural elements of French Romantichistories of religions:orwe may identify five characteristics hermeneuticof harmonies;apologeticintent; reductionism; ganic developmentalism; of Christiandoctrine. Romantic histories of religions, as and reconceptualization faith and historical-mindedness, are at once a chapterin the syntheses of traditional and in the of of the of history religious thought. study religion history

This article analyzes the histories of religions of Louis de Bonald (1754-1840), Antoine Fabre d'Olivet (1767-1824), Pierre-Simon Ballanche (1776-1847), and Ferdinand d'Eckstein (1790-1861). It establishes their mutual affinity by demonstrating that they are constructed on parallel conceptions of ontology, epistemology, and philosophy of history. It is on the presence of these common structural elements, rather than the fact that they are set out in works published in France between 1796 and 1829, that I place these histories of religions together. I do not, therefore, wish to argue that these four thinkers belong together in every respect. They attended rival salons, and diverge considerably in their attitudes toward, inter alia, Catholic orthodoxy, the Restored Bourbon monarchy, and the literary batailles of the period. The Catholic Traditionalist Bonald and the Illuminist Fabre
? KoninklijkeBrill NV, Leiden(1998) NUMEN, Vol. 45

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d'Olivet,moreover,are usually excludedfrom studiesof literaryRoin studiesof manticismand appear hedgedaroundwith qualifications Romanticreligious thought.'I groupthese four histories of religion becausethey were constructed in the intelunderthe rubricRomantic late eighteenth-century lectualcontextcreatedby the two fundamental of culturein the wake of intellectualrevolutions:the historicization Herder,and the epistemologicalpessimism arising from Kant's restrictionof scientificknowledgeto the phenomenalworld of appearances and his denial of the possibility of rationalknowledge of the worldof ultimatetruth.My intentis not to offer yet another noumenal but to establisha framework definitionof Romanticism by which to Frenchhistories renderintelligible a set of early nineteenth-century of religionsthathave been largelyignoredin the historyof the study of religion. Louis de Bonald Bonald, along with Joseph de Maistre and the early Felicit6 de Lamennais,was the great protagonistof the Catholic Traditionalist reactionagainst the doctrinesof the FrenchEnlightenment. Linking the Enlightenment, and the FrenchRevthe Protestant Reformation, olution in an unholy trinity of cause and effect, Bonald identified rationalismand individualismas the enemies of religious truthand socio-political stability.He devoted his life to the propositionthat the sole bulwarkagainstboth intellectualand social anarchyis the of the Catholicchurch.2 authority Bonald built his system - which proceeds from point to point, in the fashion of scholasticlogic - on the fundamental propositions that human ideas, values, beliefs, etc. derive not from reflectionon thinkershad argued, but from laninnate ideas, as Enlightenment guage, and that language,in turn,is not a humaninventionbut was - the revealedto earliesthumanity by God. This primitiverevelation humanknowledge carriedwith it first,and basis of all subsequent, awarenessof a superior being, and from this awarenessfollowed the of primitive revelation rudiments of religionandsociety.Transmission

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connects humanityto God and human from generationto generation each the basis of both religioustruth to other, thereby forming beings Bonald'sTraditionalism is bothan authoritarian theand social order.3 theoryof knowledge.It teaches ory of society and an anti-rationalist that whenever humanity,seduced by rationalismand individualism, cuts itself off from the authorityof inheritedTraditionit falls into the idea of primitiverevelation errorand anarchy.Epistemologically, and its transmissionallows Bonald to elude Kantianepistemological pessimism and establishcertainknowledge of the divine order in a with the faculties of fallen humanity. mannercommensurate Since Bonald identifiesreligion and society his philosophyof hisa historyof religions.The startingpoint of Bonald's tory incorporates of which in turn is history religions is the principleof universality, a corollaryof primitiverevelation.All peoples possess the elemenof the soul betary religious sentimentsof God and the immortality cause primitiverevelationis the universalinheritanceof humanity.4 These sentiments comprisenaturalreligion (or patriarchal religion, calls it). Bonald drawson the scholasticdefas Bonald alternatively in order to distinguishthe true sense of natural inition of "nature" it has undergoneat the hands of Enthe from perversions religion of theorists from the verb religion. Deriving "nature" lightenment naitre ["to be bom"], Bonald glosses the etymology: "a being is born for an end, and with the means of reaching it; this end and In accord with this teleological these means comprise its nature".5 Bonald's naturalreligion is "natural" definitionof "nature" not because it arises from the innate capacities of humanity(the errorof Enlightenmenttheorists) but because, as the force that raises humanity from a state of ignorance toward the fulfilment of its being, it is the religion appropriateto the earliest stage of human
development.6

If all peoples receive throughprimitiverevelationthe same natural religion what accountsfor the diverse beliefs and practices of the various religions of the world? Although Bonald distinguishes between idolatry and paganism- idolatry is the false worship of God; paganism is the worship of false gods7 - he attributesthe

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and abominations" "absurdities of both to the corruptionof natural exercise the of the imagination.8 Bonald finds the religion through properdevelopmentof naturalreligion in Judaismand Christianity: "natural religion is the seed of the Judaicreligion, and the Christian or revealedreligionis the development, the perfecting,the fulfilment of the Judaicreligion".9 The organicmetaphor of the growthof a seed is Bonald'spreferred expressionof the teleologicaltheory of developmentexemplifiedby his history of religions:"Truth, like humanityand like society, is a seed that developsby the successionof time and generations, always old in its beginnings,always new in its successive developments".'0 Truthcan both developand be eternalbecause for Bonald, as for the scholasticsfrom whom he derivedthe image, a seed can develop in determined only one way, the way intrinsically by its final cause."lA this corollaryof organicconceptionof developmentis that the fully developedform of somethingdisplays nothing that was not already in its earlierforms.Bonalddoes not hesitate containedembryonically to draw out the implicationsfor religion: "All the beliefs belonging to Christianity and all the practicesof its worship,derivingfrom the awarenessof the mediator,were implicitly containedin patriarchal was announced,andfigured in Judaism, religion,where the mediator wherethe mediator was expected".'2 Bonald'sconstruction of natural as what he alternatively calls the religion, Judaism,and Christianity three sequentialages of monotheismor the religion of the unity of God historicizesthe venerableChristian practiceof a figuralreading of the Old Testament and classical Antiquity.13 AntoineFabre d'Olivet Fabred'Olivet'sIlluminism,set out in a series of works published between 1813 and 1824,'4belongs to the esoterictraditionof thought thatin its moder westernform derivesaboveall fromJakobBoehme (1575-1624). Boehme's theosophydepicts creationas the emanated of God. A Fall at the spirituallevel producesthe self-manifestation physical universe, and a second Fall - that of primordialAdam,

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who was created with a radiantbody of light - separateshumanit in the physical universe.Light from ity from God and incarnates the spiritualworld is invisibly active in the sunlight of our world, just as the spiritualnatureof creation remainspresent, though hidden, at the heart of the physical world. The lluminist cosmos is It is the cosmic therebya universe of mirrorsand correspondences. task of humanityto restorecreationto its originalspiritualstate, and is possible bein so doing restoreits own eternalnature.Restoration cause the Fall has obscuredbut not entirelyblocked our perception of the divine light pervadingthe universe. Our intellectual'5nature respondsto the divine light by means of the imagination(imaginatio), a supra-rational epistemologicalfaculty that permits access to differentlevels of realitythroughthe use of mediationssuch as symbolic images. Imagination,in Boehme's phrase,is the "eye of fire" that sees through the world of appearancesto the spiritualworld within.'6 Fabred'Olivet's Illuministdramais played out in a Boehmistcosmos in which divine emanationbathes the universein divine forces and humanity,created as primordialAdam, is a spiritualbeing of with the Will, which, greatpower.Fabreidentifiesiinfallenhumanity and Providence one of the three powers, or with is Destiny, along cosmogonic principles,of the universe.While the Fall has obscured this gloriousidentity,Fabred'Olivet insists thatthe humanessence is distinctfrom lower essences and that thereis no continuitybetween Fallen humanitydisplaysa triplenathe naturalworld and humanity. and once at ture, body, soul, spirit, and lives a triple life, instinctive, passionate [animique], and intellectual (i.e., spiritual).These three and are confounded lives, when they are fully developed,intermingle into a fourth, or volitive, life. Throughthe exercise of the volitive life, which is proper to it, humanitygraduallyreintegratesprimorof its cosmogonic dial Adam and raises itself to the reattainment status.Humanity's(future)achievementof this statusis the prerequiof harmonyamongthe threecosmogonic site for the reestablishment of of principles Providence,Will, and Destiny. The reestablishment cosmogonic harmony,in turn, will create, replicatingon the macro-

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cosmic level the fourthlife of humanity,a fourthpower that is the of divinityand the realizationof Fabre'sversion very image or mirror of Illuministreintegration.17 rather Fabred'Olivet'sepistemology, thansimplyreasserting Boehme's teaching on imaginatio,takes up and purportsto refute Kant's epistemologicalpessimism.Fabre's argumentis based on the fundamental lluminist distinctionbetween rationalityand reason. Rationality, he says, is a secondaryfaculty that correspondsto soul, the middle term of the triplenatureof humanityas body, soul, and is a principalfacultythatcorresponds spirit;reason,or intellectuality, to spirit, the highest term of our triple nature. Fabre argues that Kant misled himself because, confusing rationalitywith intellectuthe spiritualnatureof reason.The result ality,he failed to understand of Kant's erroris a philosophythat first strips humanityof its spiritual faculties, then attemptsto grasp spiritualtruthswith a faculty with them, and finally, the attempthaving necesincommensurate the spiritualtruthsto be unknowable.18 declares failed, Fabre, sarily in short, overcomes Kant's epistemological pessimism by redefining reason as an intuitivefacultycapableof graspingthe ontological
Absolute.19

Humanitymay be a powerin the cosmos, but since the Fall it is a the interactionof humanitywith Fabre poweronly in germ.Through d'Olivet'sothertwo cosmogonicpowers,ProvidenceandDestiny,humanity must develop its potentialas the growth of a plant unfolds whatis containedin its seed.20 This is not a casual analogy (no analThe essences of all species, including ogy is casual to an Illuminist). humanity's ontologically uniqueessence, were placedin themby God at the creation.Becausethe will of a being corresponds to its essence, individualsand species alike develop that is, progressively realize the externalcharacteristics to their essences appropriate by means of the repeatedexerciseof the will:
It is by its efficientvolitivefaculty,emanatedfrom its principle,that each being conforms to its externalappearance. Naturalistswho have claimed that a tiger is a tiger because its teeth,claws, stomach,intestinesconformin a certainway have spoken frivolouslyand withoutlearning.... A tiger has these teeth, these

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claws, this stomach,these intestinesbecauseit is a tiger, that is to say, because its efficient volitive faculty has so constitutedit.21

Humanity,although distinct from all other creaturesby its participationin Divinity, undergoesthe same process of development is a divine seed that develops of its preexistentessence: "humanity its senses. the reaction of Everythingis innate in it".22In 1824 by a Fabred'Olivet organi7ed groupof disciples into a sect, Theodoxie universelle.Fabre cast his cult in the form of a masonic lodge except that, in a strikingexemplificationof the shift from a mechanistic to an organic worldview,he replacedthe traditionalmasonic with substitutesdeand architectural symbolism and paraphernalia The humansoul, he taughthis followers, is a rivedfrom agriculture. Fabred'Olivet finds auseed that requirescultivationto blossom.23 image of the seed in the Hebrew Bible thorityfor his fundamental of Moses' teachinghe himself "reversion in the (albeit theosophic stored"in La Languehebraiquerestituee).The firstword of Genesis, bereshith,accordingto Fabre,ought not be translated"in the begin"inpotential". Creation ning"butrather"inprincipio","inprinciple", signifies not the act of bringingsomethinginto being out of nothing but a process of bringingsomethingfrom potentialbeing into actual
being.24

History,as disclosed by the organicmetaphorof the seed, is for Fabre d'Olivet the progressiveunfolding of what is alreadyin humanityas its essence. The result is a teleological philosophyof history,in which the consequencesof humanity'sconstitutivemetaphysical principles are played out in time and space. Fabre's Histoire philosophiquedu genre humain(1824) sketches the developmentof of its Will with the other two coshumanitythroughthe interaction mogonic powers, Providenceand Destiny, over 12,000 years of history.Fabreinsists thathistoryis meaningfulonly when it is explicitly to metaphysics:"It is at once ridiculousand odious to subordinated claim to trace the routeof humanhistorywithoutbeing perfectlyinstructedabout the place from wherehumanitydeparted, aboutwhere it tends, and the object of its voyage".25

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In Les Vers dores de Pythagore (1813) Fabre d'Olivet offers a of religions.The goal of all initiationsand of three-foldclassification is he all religions, says, union with God. This experienceis not only extremelyrare but also ineffable.For such experiencesto be cominto myths, rationaldoctrines, municatedthey must be transformed and sensibleforms.Becausesuch an act of transformation necessarily and misleadingimagery, introducesillusions, logical contradictions, silence was imposed on the initiatesof Antiquity.Nevertheless,the of the variousreligions of the world are particular transformations unitiveexperienceeffectedby a founderof genius. Such a legislateur theocrate or sage thdosophegives sensible form to spiritualtruths, therebymaking accessible to the masses what otherwise would be restrictedto a tiny elite. Religions differ, despite having the same goal of unity with Divinity,because their variousfounderschose to into distinctmyths,doctrines,andsensible truths translate the spiritual forms.26 The diversityof religions,however,can be orderedinto three classes. Fabre insists that, corresponding to the triple natureof huinstinctual), rational, Divinity can be envisaged manity(intellectual, in only threeways:tritheism (threegods or one god in threepersons), dualism, and polytheism.Tritheistreligions arise when Divinity reveals itself to the spiritualfaculty of humanintelligence underthe emblem of the universalternary(Providence,Will, Destiny). Fabre identifies as tritheistreligions in which three deities are dominant, includingthe religionsof India(Brahma,Vishnu,Rudra)and Greece and Rome (Jupiter, Neptune,and Pluto), as well as those thatfeature three principalmodificationsof the same God, as in, accordingto the religions of China, Japan,Tibet, and various his interpretation, Buddhist sects. Dualist religions arise when Divinity reveals itself to the rationalfacultiesof humanityas a naturalor ethical dualism. While pure examples of dualist religion are rare - Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism- it freely mixes with tritheismand polytheism. Polytheistreligions arise when Divinity reveals itself to the instinctual faculties of humanity by means of materialimages. Polytheism, in its diverse forms the religion of the common people all over the world, is both the cradle and the tomb of the higher religions of

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dualism and tritheism.While it can lead to the knowledge of natural principles(dualism),it can also choke off all spiritualawareness under the riotous growth of materialimagery,therebyprecipitating All positive religions entire peoples into idolatryand superstition.27 encounteredin the world are either a pure form or a combination of tritheism,dualism,or polytheism.Just as, however,Fabreteaches that the full developmentof the triplenatureof humanityproducesa fourth,or volitive life, so he posits the existence of a fourthform of religion that is foundedon the absoluteunity of God. Divinity considered in the volitive unity of humanityproduces union with God - the ineffable experienceof contemplatives and mystics.28 Volitive the of in initiates to all historical experience religion corresponds periods. If Les Versdordsde Pythagoreclassifies religions accordingto the Histoirephilosophiquedu genre humainrelates facultiesof humanity, the historyof religions to the historicaldevelopmentof humanitytoof its Will with Providence wardreintegration throughthe interaction and Destiny. Histoirephilosophique,Fabreremarksin its "Dissertais built on the distinctionbetween the forms of tion introductive", etc. and their essences. Forms are dedoctrines, religions, political time and place; essences are homogenous, of on pendent exigencies "theexistenceof a greatUnity,an eternalsource,from demonstrating Near the end of the second volume Fabre which everythingflows".29 the various religions derive from Destiny states that the forms of and Will, whereas their essences are always Providential.While it is true that religion has often been the cause of strife, this is solely the result of conflict between forms of religion, which are properly political conflicts. In their Providentialessences all religions derive from and point to the same divine unity,whose terrestrial expression
theocratic world empire is the goal to which history, including

the historyof religions,is moving as the culminationof the historical of primordial Adam.30 Between these two phase of the reintegration du humainoutlines of Histoire the bulk genre philosophique passages relian evolution of religions. Fabredepicts a series of providential gions, each revealedby a "divineman"or hommeprovidentiel,which

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human egoism and ambition(the misuse of the Will) successively and cruel rituals,necessitatingthe adventof distortinto superstition anotherhommeprovidentielbearinga new revelation.Hommesprovidentiels (first, the Druid Ram, then, inter alia, Krishna,Orpheus, are instruments Providenceuses Moses, Buddha,Jesus, Muhammad) to guide wilful humanityalong the right path. The history of religions unfoldsfrom the worshipof the starsand ancestorsthroughthe religions of Europe,Asia, and the Near East towardthe culmination of history in a theocraticworld governmentas the pure expression of Providence.Progressis not continuous;there are many setbacks But this is all part of the deand ages of decadence (superstition). because the of goal is spiritualeducation,and velopment humanity is often a betterteacherthancomfort.31 catastrophe The shift from a taxonomy of religions in Les Vers dores de Pythagore to the history of religions in Histoire philosophiquedu genre humain reflects in part the sense of historical evolution that Fabre d'Olivet acquired,accordingto Cellier, during the Bourbon It was not, however,somethingentirelynew,butmerely Restoration.32 a matterof applyingto historythe organictheoryof developmentalreadycontainedin his early theosophicalworks. Behind the exoteric with a given stage of historyof religions,or the beliefs commensurate reached the lies a perennialhidden masses, by spiritualdevelopment teachingreservedfor initiatesalone.33Initiationdiscloses the drama of the reintegrative process, the end and meaning of the unfolding of history. Eventuallythe two will converge in the consummation Adam. The history of of primordial of history and the reintegration out in and the content of initiationis the is time, playing religions the revelationof, the metaphysical principlesof Fabre'sown theosophy. Ballanche Pierre-Simon The intellectualcareerof the deeply, if heterodoxically,Catholic Ballanchebeganunderthe influenceof Josephde MaistreandBonald. Ballanche,however,influentiallymodifiedTraditionalism by adding

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to it an element of social progressivism.His work also displays familiaritywith a wide rangeof esoteric thought,not least thatof Fabre d'Olivet, whom he knew personally.34 Ballanche believed that the divine order underlyingthe material the complementary universeis discernible mediationsof primthrough itive revelationand symbolicimagination.The symbolic imagination the essence of beings and things, intuitsspirof the poet, penetrating theminto materialform.35 itual truthsand translates Ballanche'sconception of the poet-seer as in his own Vision d'Hebal (1831) is

a version of the fundamental Romanticconvictionthat poetic imagination transcendshistoricaldivisions and sees into the permanent life of things.36Within Ballanche's thought,however, the symbolic imaginationof the inspiredpoet is not the only, or even the principal, source of humanity'sknowledgeof the divine order.Ballancheholds direct contact with God survivedthe that remnantsof prelapsarian Fall. This primitiverevelation(which is not, as for Catholic Traditionalists,a postlapsarian gift that compensatesfor the loss of direct contactwith God, but rathera partialsurvivalof thatoriginalcontact) contains the spiritualtruthsof the natureand end of humanityand the providentiallaw governinghistory.The content of primitiverevelationhas been transmitted chain of initiations throughan unbroken down the ages. The spiritualtruthsof Ballanche's primitiverevelationcomprise a philosophy of history,in which, as indicatedby the titles of Balsociales (1818) and Essais de Pallanche'smajorworks,Institutions sociale (1827-1831 [unfinished]),the social orderreceives ingenesie prideof place. Social palingenesis,or social evolution,is the sequence of societies throughout of births,deaths,and rebirths the centuriesof humanhistory.Eachnew stageof social evolutioneffects the initiation of humanityinto knowledgeof the primitive of a greaterproportion in religion and society. Changesin revelationand full participation and often violent since the birthof a new social orderare traumatic orderrequiresthe deathof the old.37While each social evolutionary advance,then, must be won at the price of suffering,such suffering has a purpose: it is the means by which humanityexpiates origi-

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nal sin. Social evolution will culminatein full religious and social This religio-socialutopia,which Ballanche equalityfor all humanity. close at to be believes hand,will markthe completionof the terresof humanity trialphase of the rehabilitation fromthe Fall.38 Ballanche worked out his theory of salvationwithin and by means of the social order in response to the cataclysmic event of his generation, the French Revolution.39 Once in possession of the law governing it in all the ancient cosmogonies under discerned Ballanche history which primitiverevelationwas transmitted throughinitiation. from the Fall is achievedby means of social While rehabilitation evolution Ballanche in no way supposes that the historicalprocess effects a changein humannature:"thehumanrace is one and identical to itself from its origin to the present;it will be so until the end. Its faculties are in no way successive.Thatwhich it is, it has always been, it will always be".40Humanity,in short, consists of a single essence that unfolds over time: "the human essence does not need to detach itself from an inferioressence in orderto become its true self; the evolution of the human race is containedwithin itself'.41 Like Bonald and Fabred'Olivet,Ballancheholds thatone mustknow the metaphysicaltruthsof the origin and end of humanitybefore one can understand history as the unfolding of the humanessence. By insisting that history is fully intelligible only in light of the law the empiricaldata of of social palingenesisBallanche subordinates a structure. Ballanche's to an works, in which philosopriori history phy of historyandthe symbolicintuitionof poets harmonizebecause both perceive the same divine order throughthe mediationof material forms, make explicit the relation between Romanticphilosophy of historyand Romanticpoetics. Ballanche'sphilosophyof history encompassesthe historyof religions. The mythologiesand religions of the ancientworld are variations on an ideal, universalmythology,which is itself nothingother than an allegorizedaccount of the operationof social palingenesis in humanity'sremote past.42The Saturn-Jupiter-Bacchus sequence of divinities in classical mythology,for example, corresponds to the Reof social orders in ancient actuallyundergone sequence history.43

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vealed religion, in turn, continues the process of the unfolding of social palingenesis.Ballanchedeclaresthatthe Christiandoctrinesof in the historreligiousequalityandcharitymarkan epochaltransition ical processbecausethey makereligioustruththe potentialpossession of all humanityand substitutecooperationfor violence as the agent of social change. The gradualextension of these religious principles into the civil sphereis the ongoing task of the centuriesafterChrist.44 however,is not something totally new in the world. Christianity, of developmentas the unfolding In accord with his understanding as the fully of a preexistentessence BallancheidentifiesChristianity that universal been the has evolved form of religion unfolding since can proearliesttimes: "we will discoverlater that only Christianity of so cure for us this full emancipation, object many desires, hidden in the depths of so many general beliefs; hence, once again, Chrisis the religion Christianity tianityis the true religionof humanity".45 it is able achieve the full develto because of humanity by humanity opment of its nature.While historical Christianityfully manifested true religion (the principleof religious equality)for the first time its content was already known in Antiquity because it was contained in the primitive revelationtransmittedin the ancient cosmogonies. Hence, those initiatedinto the ancient cults possessed knowledgeof the spiritualtruthsof the natureand end of humanity,includingthe providentiallaw governing history.Ballanche's history of religions of the typologicalapproachto pacontinuesBonald'shistoricization gan myth, butpushesit into heterodoxy.Since the social evolutionary occurswithinthe historicalprocess Christ'spaworkof rehabilitation gan analoguesdo not merelypoint to Christ,they actively commence the process of redemptionbegins before the work of rehabilitation; the manifestationof the archetype. Ballanchecarefullydistinguishesbetween the religions of the ancient world and what he calls "the general traditionsof the human race". The general traditionspreserve and transmitthe memory of what God intendedhumanityto be and guide its rehabilitation by the world with the truth each of to the necessary peoples providing and in a form relativeto theircapacities.46 stage of theirdevelopment

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Ballanchepresentsthe generaltraditionsas the true naturalreligion: "I understand here faith in an extended sense, soaring above all the and the referringonly to what I call the general traditions, religions universalreligion of the human race".47 His critique of Enlightenment conceptionsof natural could have come from Bonald's religion fail to that is revelation the foundationof religion perceive pen: they and society.4 The religionsof the ancientworld arose when the general traditionswere modifiedby local conditions. Though they are of the generaltraditionsall religions contain some thus corruptions reflectionof divine truthbecause the traditionshave been obscured over time but neverentirelyperverted.49 Even false dogmas, such as are Institutionssociales, metempsychosis, merelydisfiguredtruths.50 in which BallanchedescribesGreekpolytheismas "the absoluteemandlamentsthe harmdone to truereligion pire of the imagination"51 by stories of the gods' dissolutebehaviour,bears traces of Bonald's critique of the imaginationas the source of polytheism. Yet, more commonly, Ballanche maintainsthat all myths are allegories that, This contradiction,which arises yield truth.52 correctly interpreted, fromhis amalgamof Traditionalism and lluminism,disappears in the worksof Palingenesiesociale, in which "themysteriesof Christianity are hidden in all cosmogonies".53 Conversely,the general traditions anterieur.54 comprisea christianisme Ferdinandd'Eckstein Eckstein was born in Copenhageninto a merchantfamily newly convertedfrom Judaismto Lutheranism. He studied at the University of Heidelberg,wherehe absorbedthe Germanhistorico-symbolic approachto the historyof religions directlyfrom FriedrichCreutzer andgenerallythrewhimself into the Orienhimself, learnedSanskrit, tal Renaissance.In Rome in 1809 Ecksteinconvertedto Catholicism underthe influenceof Friedrich Schlegel, whom he hadmet thereand who reenforcedthe sense of the importanceof history and philology for religious reflectionthat he had already acquiredfrom Creutzer. Ecksteinarrivedin Francein 1816 as an administrator in the service of the King of Austriain the aftermath of the defeat of Napoleon.He

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soon abandonedadministrative work, having become convinced that he had a mission to provideCatholicismwith a philosophyof history. Eckstein settled in Paris in 1818 and henceforthdevoted himself to scholarship.From 1819 to 1822 he studied the collection of Indic Nationalein the hopes of extracting at the Biblioth6que manuscripts the content of the primitiverevelationfrom what he consideredthe most ancient language of Antiquity.From 1823 onwards Eckstein publishedextensively in both scholarlyand popularperiodicals.His passionateadvocacy of the religions and languages of India earned him the nickname"baronSanskrit'.55 FromJanuary1826 to December1829 Ecksteinpublishedhis own journal, Le Catholique,modeled on J.J. von Gorres' Katholik,as a studiesof whatwas to be his greatwork showcasefor the preliminary
never written on the world's religions. Eckstein admired and

history of religions.56 promotedin Le Catholiquethe Traditionalist the considered work of Bonald and his followers he Nevertheless, andAugustinBonnetty)to be inadequate because (notablyLamennais most peotheir dependenceon historicalrecordsleft uninvestigated ples of the world, aboveall those of remotesttimes. Happily,Eckstein announces,new methodscapableof exploringthe fullness of history
linguistics, philology, and mythography have been developed in

in fact, synthesizesthe historico-symbolic Le Catholique, Germany.57 Eckstein's of Germanteachersand the Catholic of history religions in he encountered France. Traditionalism studiesin Le CatholiquedemonstratEcksteinpublishednumerous a universal of existence the primitiverevelation,or naturalreliing gion, by which God revealedto early humanityreligious truths:"Our is a primitiverevelation,basis of natural religion. point of departure a real andpositive manifestation natural religion.. .we understand By of Divinity in which it revealsitself to primitivehumanityas creator of the heavensand the earth,in which it unveilsthe mysteriesof Genesis, and at the same time the more hidden mysteries of the divine
nature,..".58 This natural religion included anticipation of a saviour:

'There is joined to it the expectationof a Saviourof the world who fallen and corrupted From the postulate will rehabilitate humanity".59

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Ecksteinestablishesthe now familiarcorollary of primitiverevelation of the unity of religions: "A single revelationembracedthe entire human race; idolatrycorruptedit without extinguishingit. That is what India, China,Persia,Egypt teach us: the holy truthfinds itself
strengthened [by evidence] from all places".60 So fundamental is the

principle of unity to Eckstein'sthoughtthat he enshrinedit as the "A periodicalin which the universalityof subtitleof Le Catholique: humanknowledge is treatedfrom the point of view of the unity of doctrine".61 Unity of doctrine, however, does not exclude development.Le Catholiquecontains a history of religions because, on the organic model of developmenttaken over from Traditionalism, naturalrelia to unfolds "From this universal according preexistentpattern: gion identityof religions it follows that humanityis one, that knowledge is one, that there is only a single history of humanity,only a single developmentof it is possible..".62 Naturalreligion, despite degeneratingat times into idolatryand paganism,63 develops through Judaismto its fulfilmentin Christianity,"the perfect belief in the incarnationof the divine Word,by which the human race recovers its heavenly fortress. Christianityis a truly human philosophy".64 Christianityconfirmsand fulfils primitiverevelation'spromise that the humanrace will rise from the Fall by the expiatorysacrificeof the Messiah.65 ForEckstein,as for Bonaldand Ballanche,organicdevelopmentalism implies thatChristianity merelyunfoldswhatwas alreadypresent in the religions of Antiquity: "Since Catholicismis the truth,it must as the truth be eternal and, such, it must be eternally revealed. It is said with reason that it is as old as the world. In fact, it is the primitivelyrevealed religion; it is the naturalreligion, founded on the principleof the revelationof God in the universeand in the human race".66 Since Christianity participatesin primitivewisdom as its highest expressionEcksteinargues that the ancient religions are
compatible with indeed essentially identical to Christianity: "Is

it not known that thereexists in all primitivebeliefs, no matterhow in Asiatic doctrines,nearthey may be, and particularly degenerated

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of truthsrevealedby est to the cradleof the humanrace, a foundation Threeyears thatmay be calledpre-CatholicCatholicism?".67 tradition with meantime become in the and Ballanche, later, friendly having Ecksteinborrowedhis new friend's term to underscorethe unity of of paganismin order religions:"One must excavatein the antiquities this Christianity thatis not to recoverthere this anteriorChristianity, in itself and works that exists but fulfilled hope deeply into the yet Eckstein'selision of Ballanche'sdisdestinies of ancient nations".68 tinction between the general traditionsand the positive religions of Antiquitypermits him to use the principleof religious unity to gloin truth,whereas Bonald rify the religions of India as participating had used the same principleto glorify Catholicismas the source of all truth.This bold inversionopened Eckstein to charges of "Indoboth from outragedCatholicsand from philologistsand Christianity" to reestablishtheological accusedhim of attempting who Protestants doctrineunderthe guise of scholarship.69 The Structureof FrenchRomanticHistories of Religions FrenchRomantichistoriesof religion,while not identical,arebuilt elements of an essentialist ontology, an on the common structural Kantian eludes that pessimism, and a philosophy of epistemology history that depicts developmentas the unfolding of a preexistent essence accordingto a determined pattern. The ontologicalAbsoluteof Bonald,Ballanche,and Ecksteinis the for Fabred'Olivetit is the emanationist God of Christianorthodoxy; of Divinity Boehmist theosophy. is its refusalto acceptthe Romanticism'sepistemologicalsignature Kantiandisjunctionbetween the phenomenaland noumenalworlds. Romanticsclaim to grasp,directlyor mediately,the ontologicalAbsolute throughprimitiverevelationand/oran intuitivefaculty (imagiBonald'sattribution of a negnationor a reconceptualized reason).70 ative efficacy to the imaginationruns counterto its privilegedepisBonald here temological function for Illuminists and Romantics.71 shows his continuity with the classicism of the eighteenth century,

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for which, equally in its freethinking, Deist, and orthodoxChristian the true Primitiverevlight of reason.72 guises, imaginationcorrupts elation serves for CatholicTraditionalists the epistemologicalfunction that the imaginationdoes for Illlminists and Romantics.Fabre d'Olivet's epistemologyis the imaginatioof the Boehmist tradition, as philosophicalintuitionin responseto Kant. The reconceptualized betweenFabred'Olivetand Bonald over innateideas is disagreement a consequenceof the contradiction between Illuministemanationist ex nihilo doctrinesof creation.For Fabred'Olivet and Traditionalist innate ideas exist because, and are a sign, of our ontological participationin Divinity. Bonald's denial of innate ideas, originallydirectedagainstEnlightenment derivesfrom his insistence rationalism, that the absolute ontological distinctionbetween God and humanity demands that all humanknowledge of spiritualtruth come externallyfrom revelation.Ballanche,who rejects emanationismeven thoughhis universeis in many ways the cosmos of correspondences of the Illuministtradition,assertsthat primitiverevelationand symbolic imaginationare complementary mediationsbetween humanity and the divine order.Eckstein derives knowledge of the divine order by the applicationof a symbolic hermeneuticsto the traces of primitiverevelationthatsurvivein the languagesand mythologiesof
Antiquity.

The philosophies of history of our four thinkers are variations in which the preexison a teleological organic developmentalism tent essence of humanityunfolds accordingto an a priori pattern. Bonald depicts the essence of humanitygiven in primitiverevelation as unfolding in history accordingto a teleological developmentalism analogous to the scholasticcorrelationof the growth of a seed to its final cause. Eckstein builds on the Catholic Traditionalist elements of primitiverevelationand organic developmentalism. Ballanche modifies Traditionalism of soby insisting on the importance cial institutionsand crises for the unfolding of the human essence and by discoveringthe law governinghistoryin history itself. Fabre d'Olivet interprets historyas the unfoldingof the metaphysical prinin the human essence through the exercise of its contained ciples

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volitive principle.All four philosophies of history,in combiningan epistemologythatgraspseternalspiritualrealityandan organicdevelopmentalismaccordingto which essences unfold over time, express an antinomybasic to Romanticthought:they affirmthe existence of of eternalideas while at the same time assertingthe meaningfulness faith andhistorical-mindedness history.These synthesesof traditional remindus thathistoricizingthoughtbegan not as a move towardsecularizationbut as an attemptto find meaning in history.The great Romantic dream, as Leon Cellier has said, was to spiritialize.the idea of progress.73 Consequentupon these structuralelements we may identify five of FrenchRomantichistories of religions. characteristics Romantichistoriesof religionssub(1) Organicdevelopmentalism. ordinatetheirempiricaldatato a teleological organicdevelopmentalism accordingto which the preexistentessence of humanityunfolds They purportto provideempiricalcoraccordingan a priori pattern. orderunderlyinghistory. of the metaphysical roboration their empiricaldata in light of Reductionism. (2) By interpreting Romantichistories of relia teleological organic developmentalism of the reduce multiplicity religious phenomenaempiricallyengions The order.74 counteredin the world to a single, unified transcendent principle of unity is more importantin graspingthe natureof Roand mantichistoriesof religionsthana distinctionbetween Christian The orthodoxChristianhistoryof religionsof Bonald, non-Christian. the heterodox histories of religions of Ballanche and Eckstein,and the non-Christian historyof religions of Fabred'Olivet are not irreducibly opposed, as were Catholic,Deist, andphilosopheversionsof religion duringthe eighteenthcentury,but, as the web of comparative friendshipsamongtheirauthorsattests,parallelapproaches grounded on the universalityof religious truthguaranteedby the authorityof Tradition.75 of figurism,by (3) Hermeneuticof harmonies.The historicization which pagan religions are read as imperfect but harmoniousparallels with the Christian revelation, representsa new kind of analogical idea of an "anteriorChristianity" hermeneutics.The corresponding

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vastlyexpandedthe corpusof whatcouldbe consideredsacredtexts.7 The next generationof Romanticpoets, on the model of Ballanche, extended the categoryof sacredtexts to include their own inspired of humanity.77 epics of the regeneration all religionsare stages in the unfolding intent. Since (4) Apologetic of religious truththey point to and confirmthe Christianrevelation (or theosophy,in the case of Fabred'Olivet)as the full expressionof that truth.Enlightenment critics, invertingthe early modem practice of explaining parallelsbetween the Bible and mythologies as evidence that the latter originatedas plagiarismof the former,7 used of Chrisreligion to attackthe uniquenessand authority comparative doctrines.79 tianityby showingthatotherreligionsteach the Christian The orthodox late eighteenth-century reaction to these attacks defendedrevealedChristianity as the sole true religion and condemned all other religions as false since they did not know the true God.80 This defense of Christianity correspondsto the Cartesiantheology dominantin French seminariesat the time. Romantic histories of critics of Christianity and the religions combat both Enlightenment of the theologiansby reconceptualizing rationalism natural Cartesian the idea of developreligion as primitiverevelationand substituting and/orcorruption ment for degeneration as the explanationfor both the multiplicityand the similarityof the world's religions (although are retainedto explain paganismsthat degenerationand corruption are judged to fall outside the line of development).The shift from eighteenth-century philosophicsyncretismto Romantichistories of made religions, possible by the revolutionin historical-mindedness, as truereligionwhile accountingfor parallels revalorizesChristianity with other religions. (5) Reconceptualization of Christiandoctrine. Romantichistories in the contextof earlynineteenth-century of religionsreconceptuali7e, intellectual,social, and political life, the Christiandoctrinesof revelation, providence,theodicy,eschatology,and soteriology.Romantic historiesof religions are at once a chapterin the historyof the study of religion and in the historyof religious thought.

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Impactof FrenchRomanticHistories of Religions French Romantic histories of religions, built as they are on the elements of an essentialistontology, an epistemologythat structural eludes Kantianpessimism, and a philosophy of history that depicts developmentas the unfoldingof a preexistentessence accordingto a determinedpattern, are part of the Romantic quest for alternatives to Enlightenmentempiricism and rationalism.As such, they to the study of religion, to GermanRomanticapproaches correspond most notablythe philosophiesof religion of F.W.J.von Schellingand and the histories of religions of Schelling FriedrichSchleiermacher and FriedrichCreutzer.Neo-Romanticismhas been a powerfulcurrent within twentieth-century study of religion. And yet we must of NathanSoderblom,Rudolf Otto, allow that the neo-Romanticism van der Gerardus Friedrich Leeuw,WilliamBredeKristensen, Heiler, Paul Tillich, and othersis primarilyindebtedto the GermanRomantics and to the philosophyof religion. For the impact of the French Romantichistoriesof religionsdiscussedin this articlewe must look to the fortunesof the concept of Tradition. Bonald's Catholic Traditionalist history of religions was takenup by F6licit6 de Tamennais(1782-1854). Lamennaisdevotedthe third and fourth volumes of his widely read Essai sur l'indifferenceen matierede religion (1817-1823) to compiling historicalevidencefor the existence of a primitiverevelationand its transmissionthrough the ages. Following Lamennais'lead, the disciples and friendswho movementpublishednumerousworksdemonformedthe Mennaisian the universalityof the Catholic revelation. Notable among strating these is Des Doctrinesphilosophiquessur la certitude(1826) of the abbe Philippe Gerbet. ceased publicationshortlybeforethe July Eckstein'sLe Catholique CatholicTraRevolutionof 1830, just as Lamennaiswas abandoning In ditionalismfor a liberalCatholicism. the years that followed Eckstein passed into obscuritywhile Lamennais'increasingradicalism lost him his group of followers and eventually carriedhim outside the Churchaltogether.Nevertheless,the cessation of Le Catholique

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and the dissolution of the Mennaisianmovementdid not spell the end of CatholicTraditionalist historyof religions.Thatthis was so is of the the result activityof the lay Catholic,AugustinBonnetty largely of both the early Lamennaisand (1798-1879). Underthe inspiration EcksteinBonnettyfoundedin 1830 the Annalesde philosophiechretienne.This journal,which lasted into the twentiethcentury,indefatigably compiled evidence from the latest discoveriesof the historical sciences for a primitiverevelationidentical in content to Christianity. Its articles on the history of religions were presentedunderthe rubricsof 'Traditions"and 'Traditionsprimitives".Catholic Traditionalisthistory of religionsdeclined with the rise of Neo-Thomism within the Catholic and the concomitantcriticismof Traditionalism Church.It was formallycondemnedin 1870. Another trajectoryof the concept of Traditionin the nineteenth In the 1830s and 1840s French centuryis religioushumanitarianism. thinkerssuch as PierreLeroux(1797-1891) and EdgarQuinet(1803and social prog1875) developedBallanche'sfusion of traditionalism ress in a mannerthat gave pride of place to humanityand this life. Leroux'sand Quinet'sreligioushumanitarianisms reject originalsin, and the expectationof a spiritual the divine origin of Christianity, the ideas of the preexistenceof souls, life as afterlife,while retaining a series of expiations,terrestrial progressas both social and spiritual, the successive unfoldingof a single revelation,and the value of anJustas Ballanche'sphilosophyof historycontaineda cient traditions. containhishistory of religions, so these religious humanitarianisms tories of religions (althoughQuinet is more explicit about this than on the idea that humanity, in the course of its inLeroux)predicated tellectual,social, and spiritual development,supersedesoutwornrelidramatised this idea in his 1833 prose epic, Ahasverus, gions. Quinet in a it course 1839 of lectures,dedicatedto Balbefore presenting lanche, on the historyof religions.The lectureswere publishedas Le G6nie des religions(1841). Fabre d'Olivet's direct influence on the study of religion is negligible, but he representsan importantstage in the developmentof versionof the Traditionalist the perennialist to the study of approach

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religions work of twentieth-century perenreligion. The comparative nialists such as Rene Gu6non,FrithjofSchuon, Huston Smith, and Seyyed Hossein Nasr is organizedaroundthe concept of an esoteric Tradition.There is a sophia perennis - of superhuman origin, not invented by humanitybut received - that lies imperfectly recognized at the centreof all religionsandgives them whatevertruththey of the specific perennialist possess. Depending on the temperament in question,all or some of the world's exotericreligions are praised as access ports, or condemnedas obstacles, to the esoteric sophia of comparisonamongthe exotericreligionsis perennis.The standard to this esoteric Tradition.In contrastto Roor fidelity transparency mantic versions of traditionalism, twentieth-century perennialismis hence, it practicescomparative anti-evolutionary; religion in the manner of Renaissanceand Baroqueprisca theologianssuch as Athanasius Kircherin place of history of religions in the mannerof Fabre d'Olivet. The rejectionof evolutionon the part of twentieth-century of historical perennialistsreflects the post-Romantictransformation analysis into a scientific, secular discipline. Fabre d'Olivet, and nthe idea of an esoteric luminism generally,neverthelesstransmitted into the modem period. Tradition for the Study of Religion Department Universityof Toronto 123 St. George Street Toronto,Ontario,M5S 2E8, Canada
ARTHUR MCCALLA

1 On the complicationsof defining "FrenchRomanticism",see D.G. Charlton, in The FrenchRomantics,2 vols, ed. D.G. Charl"TheFrenchRomanticMovement" 9-21. ton (Cambridge: UP, 1984), Cambridge 2 On Bonald,see The Counter-Revolution: DoctrineandAction Godechot, Jacques Princeton 1789-1804 (Princeton: M.G. Reardon,LiberalUP, 1971), 96-102; Bernard ism and Tradition: France(CamAspectsof CatholicThoughtin Nineteenth-Century La Contra-Revolution UP, 1975), 43-53; and G&rard Gengembre, bridge:Cambridge ou l'histoire disesperante (Paris:Imago, 1989). 3 Bonald, Lgislation primitiveconsidereedans les dernierstempspar les seules lumieresde la raison (1802) in Oeuvrescompletes, 3 vols. (Paris: Migne, 1859), 1:1175-1176.

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and fundamental Traditionalist Availing himself of the characteristic equation of universalitywith truth,Bonaldassertsthat the ubiquityof the sentimentsof God of the soul provesthe existenceof theirobjects.Bonald,Theorie and the immortality du pouvoir politique et religieuse dans la societ, ddmontr6e par raisonnementet in-Oeuvres 3 l'histoire vols. (Paris:Migne, 1859), 1:457. (1796) completes, par 5 Bonald, in Oeuvres Ldgislationprimitive completes 1:1126. "Naturevient de un etre de nasci: nait une nattre,natura, fin, et avec les moyens d'y parvenir; pour cette fin et ces moyens composentsa nature." 6 Bonald, L.gislation primitivein Oeuvrescompletes1:1165, 1171. 7 Bonald, Theoriedu pouvoir in Oeuvrescompletes,1:521. 8 Bonald,L6gislation primitivein Oeuvrescompletes,1:1177. 9 Bonald, Theoriedu pouvoir in Oeuvrescompletes,1:482;see also 1:523. "[L]a religion naturelleest le germe de la religion judaique,et la religion chr6tienneou r6v6eleest le d6veloppement, le perfectionnement, de la religion I'accomplissement judaique." 10 Bonald, Lgislation primitive in Oeuvres completes, 1:1199-1200. "Ainsi la v6rit6est, comme l'homme et comme la societ6, un germe qui se d6veloppepar la succession des temps et des hommes, toujoursanciennedans son commencement, successifs." toujoursnouvelle dans ses d6veloppements 11 George Boas, FrenchPhilosophiesof the RomanticPeriod (Baltimore:Johns HopkinsUP, 1925), 73. 12 Bonald,Ldgislation primitivein Oeuvrescompletes,1:1233. 'Toutes les croyances propres au christianisme,et toutes les practiquesde son culte, d6rivantde la connaissancedu mediateur, etaient implicitementcontenuesdans la religion pamediateur etait oi le triarchale, annonce, et elles etaient figur6esdans la religion etait m6diateur attendu." le judaique,oh 13 On FrenchRomanticuses of figurism,see FrankPaul Bowman,"TheTheory in FrenchRomanticism: and Interdisciplinary of Harmonies" Intertextual Readings Johns HopkinsUP, 1990), 125-154, esp. 130-135. (Baltimore: 14 The basic study is Leon Cellier, Fabre d'Olivet. Contribution a letude des (Paris:Nizet, 1953). aspects religieuxdu romantisme 15In the esoterictradition "intellectual" refersto a supra-rational facultyin which the dualities of discursivethought are transcendedin a unity. The corresponding knowledgeis often designatedas "gnosis". 16PierreDeghaye,"Jacob Boehme and His Followers"in AntoineFaivreand Jacob Needleman, eds., Moder Esoteric Spirituality(New York:Crossroad,1992), 214-229; Antoine Faivre, Access to WesternEsotericism (Albany: SUNY Press, 1994), 10-13. 17Fabred'Olivet,Histoirephilosophiquedu genre humain,2 vols. (Paris:1824; Paris:L'Age d'homme, 1974), 1:22-35;Cellier,Fabred'Olivet, 265, 271. reprinted

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Paris:l'Age d'Olivet,Les Versdordsde Pythagore(Paris:1813; reprinted d'homme, 1978), 304-318. 19 Fabre d'Olivet's attemptto elude Kant's epistemological pessimism correvon Schelling's philosophicalnotion of a transcendental to F.WJ. sponds closely communicates with the PureActualityof the Godhead.The that or intuition insight we the immense influenceon Scheling's later once recall is less affinity surprising thought of Boehmist theosophy via FriedrichChristophOetinger and Franz von Baader.Cf. also Samuel TaylorColeridge'sdistinction(itself inspiredby Schelling) and reason. between understanding 20 Fabred'Olivet, Histoire philosophique,1:46-48. 21 Fabre d'Olivet, La Langue hibraique restitueeet la veritable sens de mots hebreux rdtabli et prouvd par leur analyse radicale, 2 vols. (Paris: 1815-1816; reprintedLausanne:l'Age d'homme, 1975), 2:202. "C'est par sa facult6 volative efficiente, 6mandede son principe,que tout etre se conformea l'extcrieur.Les naturalistes qui ont pretenduque le tigre 6tait tigre, parce qu'il avait des dents, des griffes, un estomac,des boyaux,conformesd'une telle maniereont parlele6grement et sans science.... Le tigre a ces dents, ces griffes, cet estomac, ces boyaux parce qu'il est tigre;c'est-a-direparce que sa faculte volitive efficiente le constituetel." 22 Fabred'Olivet, Histoirephilosophique,1:88. "[L]'hommeest un germe divin qui se ddveloppepar la raction de ses sens. Tout est inn6 en lui." 23 Fabred'Olivet outlinedthe teachingsof his sect in La VraiMafonnerie et la Celeste culture(firstpublishedin 1953, 6d. Leon Cellier [Grenoble:Presses universitairesfrancaises]).See Cellier,Fabred'Olivet, 312-321. 24 Cellier, Fabred'Olivet, 154-155. 25 Fabred'Olivet, Histoire philosophique,1:44. "IIest Ala fois ridiculeet odieux de pretendre lui tracerune routesans etre parfaitement instruitedu lieu d'oi il part, du but oi il tend, et de l'objet de son voyage." 26 Fabred'Olivet, Versdores de Pythagore,356-361. 27 Fabred'Olivet, Versdors de Pythagore,361-366. 28 Fabred'Olivet, Versdores de Pythagore,366-368. 29 Fabred'Olivet, Histoire philosophiquedu genre humain,1:3-4. "...l'existence d'une grandeUnite, source etemelle d'oh tout d6coule". 30 Fabred'Olivet, Histoire philosophiquedu genre humain,2:400-409. 31 See the summaryin Cellier,Fabred'Olivet, 277-284. 32 Cellier,Fabre d'Olivet, 273. 33 See PierreAlbouy,La Creationmythologique chez VictorHugo (Paris:J. Corti, 38. 1985), 34 On Ballanche,see Arthur McCalla,A Romantic Historiosophy:ThePhilosophy Ballanche(Leiden, Boston & Koln: EJ. Brill, 1998). of Historyof Pierre-Simon 35 Ballanche, Essais de Palingndisie sociale: Orphee (1829) in OeuvrescomGeneve: Slatkine, 1967), 6:82-83. pletes, 6 vols. (Paris: 1833; reprinted

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36 See Jerome J. McGann, The Romantic Ideology: A Critical Investigation

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), 100-101. On Ballanche's poetics, 4 (1972): 84-101 see A.J.L. Busst, "Ballancheet le poete voyant"in Romantisme and Paul Benichou,Le Sacre de l'ecrivain (Paris:J. Corti, 2nd ed. 1985), 164-166. 37 Ballanche,Institutions sociales (1818) in Oeuvrescompletes,2:45. 38 Ballanche, Essais de Palingenesiesociale: Prolegomenes(1827) in Oeuvres completes,4:55, 123. 39 Ballanche,Proldgomenes in Oeuvrescompletes,4:179-180. 40 Ballanche, Prolegomanesin Oeuvrescompletes, 4:386-387. "Ainsi le genre humainest un et identiqueAlui-memedepuis son originejusqu'a la fin. Ses facultes ne sont point successives.Ce qu'il est, il l'a toujoursete, il le sera toujours." 41 Ballanche, Prolegomenesin Oeuvrescompletes, 4:387. "Ainsi l'essence humaine n'a besoin de se d6gagerd'une essence inferieure,pour parvenira etre ce qu'elle est: 1'evolutionde la race humaineest en elle-meme." 42 Ballanche,Orpheein Oeuvrescompletes,5:5. 43 Ballanche, Orphdein Oeuvrescompletes,5:153-154. 44 Ballanche,Proldgomenes in Oeuvrescompletes,4:63-65. 45Ballanche, in Oeuvrescompletes,4:184-185. "Cettepleine6manicProldgomenes ipation,objet de tantde voeux, cach6esau fond de tantde croyancesg6enrales,nous seul peut nous la procurer, et que des-lors, trouverons plus tardque le christianisme est la v6ritablereligion de l'humanite." encoreune fois, le christianisme 46 Ballanche,Orpheein Oeuvrescompletes,6:146. 47 Ballanche,Prolegomdnes in Oeuvrescompletes,4:368. "[J]'entends ici la foi dans un sens 6tendu,planantau-dessusde toutes les religions, pour ne s'appliquer qu'k ce que j'appelle les traditionsg6enrales,la religion universelledu genre humain". 48 Ballanche,Prolegomenesin Oeuvrescompletes,4:368-369. 49 Ballanche, Prolegomnes in Oeuvrescompletes,4:114. 0 Ballanche, in Oeuvrescompletes,4:329. Prolegomenes 51 Ballanche,Institutions sociales in Oeuvrescompletes,2:181. 52 For sociales in Oeuvrescompletes,2:282. example,Institutions 53 Ballanche, Orphdein Oeuvrescompletes,5:185. "Les myst6resdu christianisme sont caches dans toutes les cosmogonies".See also Prolegomenesin Oeuvres completes,4:155. 54 Ballanche,Orpheein Oeuvrescompletes,6:60, 268, 280. 55 The basic sourcefor Ecksteinis Nicolas Burtin,Un semeurdes idees au temps de la restauration: Le barond'Eckstein(Paris:Boccard, 1931). See also Raymond Schwab, The OrientalRenaissance:Europe's Rediscoveryof India and the East, and Victor Reinking(New York:Columbia 1680-1860, trans.Gene Patterson-Black des Derr6,Lamennais,ses amis et le mouvement UP, 1984), 259-273 andJean-Rene 1824-1834 (Paris:Klincksieck,1962), 115-167. idees d l'dpoqueromantique,

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56 Eckstein, Le

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Catholique1 (1826): 8, quotedin Burtin, Un semeur des idees, 224. 57 See the passages fromLe Catholiquegatheredin Burtin,Un semeurdes idees, 230-235. 58 Eckstein,Le Catholique 4 (1826): 558, quotedin Burtin,Un semeurdes idees, 238. "Notrepoint de departest une rdevlationprimitive, fondementde la religion ..nous entendonsune manifestation naturelle.Parreligion naturelle. r6elle et positive i l'homme primitifcomme creatricedu ciel et de la terre, de la Divinite, se montrant alors qu'elle lui d6voile les mysteresde la Genese, et en meme temps les mysteres plus cach6s de la naturedivine...". 59 Eckstein, Le Catholique13 (1829): 444, quoted in Burtin, Un semeur des une religion idees, 239. "I1 y a une r6v6lationprimitive,une religion patriarcale, de la nature. I s'y est joint l'annonce d'un Sauveur du monde, pour rehabiliter l'humanit6d6chue et corrollpue." 60 Eckstein,Le 9 (1828): 341, quotedin Burtin,Un semeurdes iddes, Catholique 240. "Une seule revelationa embrassetout le genrehumain;l'idolatriel'a cotronipu sans l'etouffer.C'est ce que nous apprendront l'Inde, la Chine, la Perse, l'Egypte: de toutes partsla verite sainte se trouvera fortifiee." 61 "Ouvragep6riodiquedans lequel on traitede l'universalitedes connaissances humainessous le point de vue de l'unite de doctrine." 62 Eckstein,Le Catholique11 (1828): 137, quoted in Burtin,239-240. "De cette identite universelle des religions, une consequence s'impose, c'est que l'humanite est une, que la science est une, qu'il n'y a qu'uneseule histoirede l'humanite,qu'un seul developpementlui est possible...". 63 Eckstein,Le Catholique13 (1829): 444, quotedin Burtin,Un semeurdes iddes, 239. 64 Eckstein,Le Catholique 4 (1826): 559, quotedin Burtin,Un semeurdes id&es, 239. "...la croyance parfaitea l'incarnationdu Verbe divin, par laquelle le genre humaina rctrouv6 son pointd'appuidansle ciel. Le christianisme est une philosophie vraimenthumaine." 65 Eckstein,Le 3 (1826): 133, quotedin Burtin,Un semeurdes idees, Catholique 241. 66 Eckstein,Le 3 (1826): 133, quotedin Burtin,Un semeurdes idees, Catholique 241. "Lecatholicismeetantla verite,ne peut etre la veriteetemelle et, commetelle, il doit etre etemellementrevele. On a dit avec raisonqu'il etait vieux comme le monde. En effet, il est la religion primitivement revelee; il est la religion naturelle,fondee sur le principede la revelationde Dieu dans l'universet dans le genre humain." 67 Eckstein,Le Catholique 3 (1826): 171, quotedin Burtin,Un semeurdes idees, 242. "[N]e sait-on pas...qu'il existe dans toutes les croyancesprimitives,quelques dans les doctrinesasiatiques,les plus degenereesqu'elles soient,et particuli6rement

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voisines du berceaudu genrehumain,un fond de verit6srev6eles de tradition, qu'on pourrait appelerle catholicismeanterieurau catholicisme?" 68 Eckstein, Le Catholique15 (1829): 183, quoted in Burtin, Un semeur des idies, 235. "^ faut donc fouillerdans les antiquit6sdu paganismepour y retrouver ce christianisme non accompli,mais existanten esp6rance, ce christianisme antnrieur, dans les destin6esdes nationsanciennes." et s'enlan9antprofondement 69 See Schwab,OrientalRenaissance,269-271. 70 Among Romanticsthe distinctionbetween imaginationand a reconceptilali7ed reasonis often only a matterof words: ... Imagination, which, in truth, Is but anothername for absolutepower of mind, And clearestinsight,amplitude And Reason in her most exaltedmood. The Prelude(1799-1805), Bk. 14: 11.189-192. WilliamWordsworth, 71 The literatureon epistemologicalstatus of the imaginationin literaryRostudies include Ren6 Wellek, "The Conceptof manticismis extensive.Fundamental 'Romanticism'in LiteraryHistory"in ComparativeLiterature1 (1949): 147-172 Tradition and M.H. Abrams,NaturalSupernaturalism: and Revolutionin Romantic Literature (New York:Norton, 1971). 72 How was my Heartencrusted by the World? O how self-fetter'dwas my grovellingSoul? How, like a Worm,was I wraptroundand round In silken thought,which reptileFancy spun, Till darken'dReasonlay quite clouded o'er... EdwardYoung,Night Thoughts (1742), Bk. 1: 1. 155-159. 73 Cellier,Fabred'Olivet,403. 74 "'Reductionistic'is almost invariablyused as a derogatoryterm in much of the literatureon religion, where it denotes those sorts of explanationsthat do not Such usage wrongly implies that only the 'reductionists' resort to transcendence. have explanationsfor religion,while the antireductionists modestly do not. Such is have a different not the case. Antireductionists, J. SamuelPreus, rather, explanation." from Bodin to Freud(New Haven:Yale ExplainingReligion: Criticismand Theory UP, 1987), ix n.2. 75 See Cellier,Fabred'Olivet,406. 76 Bowman,"TheTheoryof Harmonies" in FrenchRomanticism,127. 77 For example, Edgar Quinet,Ahasverus (1833), Alphonse de Lamartine,La Chuted'un ange (1838), and VictorHugo, La Lgende des siecles (1859-1883). See Herbert France(Oxford:Blackwell, 1941). J. Hunt,TheEpic in Nineteenth-Century 78 See Henri Pinardde la Boullaye, L'Etude compardedes religions, 2 vols. (Paris:G. Beauchesne,1922): 1:176-225.

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79 For example, Nicolas-Antoine Boulanger, L'Antiquitd devoilde par ses usde Volney, Les Ruines des empires (1791), and ages (1766), Constantin-Franqois Charles-Frangois Dupuis, L'Originde tous le cultes, ou Religion universelle(an II See [1795]). Joscelyn Godwin, The TheosophicalEnlightenment(Albany: SUNY Press, 1994), 33-37. 80 See Godwin, TheosophicalEnlightenment, 37.