Description
Book SynopsisBurson examines Yvon’s work in order to explore broader trends in the diverse ways eighteenth-century individuals spoke about enlightening human reason, religion, and society.
Trade Review"This is one of the most vital recent scholarly books to be written on the culture of the French learned world during the period of the 'Enlightenment.' With the rise of interest in Catholic responses to the lumières, this work focuses astutely and with bright focus on the 'entangling' of Catholic theologians and savants, on the one hand, and secular Enlightenment thinkers, on the other. . . . A remarkable, erudite, compelling, and major study, reconceptualizing much of 'Enlightenment' studies, and it will change the ways in which unbiased readers approach the eighteenth century." —Alan Charles Kors, Henry Charles Lea Professor Emeritus of History, University of Pennsylvania
"This is a splendidly researched book that sheds light on the life of an overlooked yet fascinating figure of the Enlightenment and makes a crucial contribution to Enlightenment scholarship. The author does a great job situating the Abbé Yvon's life in the context of eighteenth-century intellectual culture and showing how the complex and even contradictory elements of his thought were representative of broader trends." —Anton M. Matytsin, Kenyon College
"Jeffrey Burson's thorough study of the obscure, sometimes ridiculed, Abbé Claude Yvon provides a compelling vehicle for examining the 'culture of enlightening.' Through meticulous research and erudite analysis, Burson examines Yvon's lengthy and eclectic body of work to illustrate that the Enlightenment was neither monolithic nor a series of discrete movements. This book emphasizes the Enlightenment as a process in which different modes of thought intersected with one another, sometimes in conflicting and contradictory ways. Through this impressive case study in which we see the interaction between individuals and ideas, Burson provides the outlines of a 'cultural revolution,' defined by ideas, interactions, interventions, and contingency." —Mita Choudhury, Vassar College
"The Culture of Enlightening does nothing less than offer a new vision of the Enlightenment, one that is less about portioning off the intellectual movement into distinct, reified groups and more about a shared, common culture of borrowing and mutually constructive debates." —Journal of Jesuit Studies
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
Part I.
- The Culture of Enlightening en Sorbonne and the Formation of Claude Yvon
- Into the Mid-Century Maelstrom: Claude Yvon between Sorbonne and the Encyclopédistes
- The Encyclopédie and the Polarization of Enlightening Culture in France Part 2.
- Yvon the Encyclopédiste I: Metphysics, Logic, and the History of Philosophy
- Yvon the Encyclopédiste II: Immortality, Immateriality, and an Abbé’s Dalliance with Vitalistic Materialism
- Yvon the Encyclopédiste III: Moral Philosophy, Practical Theology, and the Problem of Evil Part 3.
- Yvon in Exile, 1752-1762
- The Return from Exile, c. 1762-1768
- The Quest to Harmonize Philosophy and Religion: The First Attempt, 1762-1768
- Out of the Ashes?: Yvon at Château d’Ormes, c. 1771-1774
- From Yvon’s Last Stand before the General Assembly of the Clergy to His Last Days, c. 1770-1789
- Yvon Post-Mortem: Concluding Reflections on the Cultural and Theological Revolution of Enlightening
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
