For and Against the Bible (translation)
A Translation of Sylvain Mar茅chal鈥檚 Pour et Contre la Bible (1801)
2020
Sheila Delany
In this first translation of Sylvain Mar茅chal鈥檚 Bible commentary, Sheila Delany offers an important document in the history of modern European secularization and rationalist Bible criticism. Editor of one of France鈥檚 best-known radical journals, R茅volutions de Paris, and author in many genres鈥攄rama, poetry, journalism, treatise鈥擬ar茅chal (1750-1803) embraced the revolutionary egalitarian ideas of Fran莽ois-No毛l 鈥淕racchus鈥� Babeuf. As an atheist, he witnessed with dismay the advent of Napoleon and the post-revolutionary return of Catholic fervor. For and Against the Bible was his protest, his reminder of what the nation had endured and of what, at the opening of the nineteenth century, it might still accomplish. ...