Madame de Staël, the Protestant Reformation and the History of ‘Private Judgement’

Authors

Helena Rosenblatt, CUNY Graduate CenterFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2007

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that Madame de Staël held the Protestant Reformation in high regard and preferred Protestantism to all other religions. To her, Protestantism was the most moral and the most enlightened religion available; it was the the religion most compatible with, and even conductive to, progress.

But why was this so, and what exactly did Madame de Staël mean by Protestantism? It is an important question, because answering it will shed light on the nature of her liberalism and, more particularly, on the interconnectedness of her religious and her political views.

Comments

This work was originally published in Annales Benjamin Constant.