Dream Worlds? Religion and the Early Socialists in France

Bibliographic Data

ID8959299
AuthorsPamela Pilbeam (Royal Holloway University of London, corresponding author)
Year2000
Volume43
Issue2
Pages499-515
Publication date2000-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x99008924
OpenAlexW2104001480
LanguageEN
Citations received6

This article gives chronology, nuance, and context to an analysis of how early socialist attitudes to religion changed. It asks why socialists argued with increasing fervour between the early 1830s and 1848 that social reform had to be rooted in spiritual as well as moral values. Two of the largest groups, the Icarians and the Fourierists, moved from a rational deism to Christianity. Both were driven by the need to defend themselves from accusations of immorality levelled against Fourier and the Saint-Simonians because of their rejection of monogamous marriage. The Fourierists, strongly influenced by their dominant female members, transformed Fourier's diety into a Christian God. Cabet, under pressure of ‘moral outrage’ from his critics, did likewise and found that this corresponded to the experiences of the Icarians in their artisan organizations. The religion of the early socialists was a democratic and a pragmatic morality, derived from artisan corporations, and seen as a vital base for fraternal association which was their solution to the ills of society

Christianity · Context (archaeology · Democracy · Dream · Immorality · Morality · Outrage · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theology · European Political History Analysis · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Philosophy · Political Theory and Influence · Psychology · Religious studies

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