Foi et raison dans l’œuvre de William Chillingworth

Abstract

Against the English background of Charles I’s reign, but also far beyond such a background of theologico-political polemics, the reference book of English protestantism (The Protestant Religion, i.e. the title for the French translation published in Amsterdam in 1730), asked the basic questions of the landmarks for religious faith (the Bible only), of the epistemological (the central role of reason) and ethical issues, foreshadowing, fifty years after Hooker and almost in the wake of Grotius, a form of irenic toleration exposed by its contradictors as a form of scepticism, or even worse, socinianism. This book, recommended by Locke in his Thoughts on Education, and praised by Coste and Des Maizeaux, was a forerunner of the Cambridge Platonists. It is the witness, beyond the personal data of Chillingworth ’s temper and life, of a century in which one sought for certainty, consensus and consent. Faith and Reason, after being educated and critically examined by moderate judgment, could really be complementary arguments for peace, as opposed to every sort of sectarian and destructive enthusiasm.