Madame de Staël et la « religion universelle »

Abstract

MADAME DE STAËL AND THE “UNIVERSAL RELIGIONˮ

The object of the article is the idea of a universal religion formulated by Madame de Staël in her book De l’Allemagne in 1813. In order to grasp the meaning of this idea, we have to consider first the religious identity of the author, then sketch the philosophical and religious context in which the idea has developed, and present Madame de Staël’s worldview, inspired by Enlightenment phi­losophy and Protestant thought as well as mystical and esoteric sources popular among German philosophers of nature. In the broader context of the development of the idea of a universal religion, the work of the French pioneer of Romanticism, in which the idea, associated with the feeling of infinity, is conceived as a worship exercised by the whole universe having his temple in the human heart, occupies an important place at the intersection of the 18th and the 19th century.