Abstracts
Abstract
This article explores how freethinkers received John Bunyan and read his works in Victorian Britain. An analysis of freethinking periodicals, letters to editors, lectures, essays, and autobiography reveals a vexed relationship that was anything but monolithic. There emerged two distinct reading communities within organized freethought. Some freethinkers, especially in the early nineteenth century, rejected Bunyan as another representation of irrational religious faith that was a hindrance to societal reform. However, other freethinkers appropriated his works and used him as a valuable resource for understanding their own experiences with religion as well as for communicating their message. I demonstrate that these contrasting positions resulted from interpretive strategies that stem from fundamental assumptions regarding how the project of secularism ought to interact with Britain’s predominantly Christian culture. It corresponds to an ongoing negotiation of meaning within organized freethought that reflects internal fissures, as well as a rapidly changing British society.
Résumé
Dans cet article, j’explore la réception, dans la Grande-Bretagne de l’époque victorienne, de l’oeuvre de John Bunyan par les libres penseurs. Une analyse de périodiques, de lettres aux journaux, de conférences, de dissertations et d’autobiographies associés au courant de la libre pensée révèle un rapport problématique qui était tout sauf monolithique. Deux communautés de lecture distinctes émergèrent au sein du mouvement. Certains libres penseurs, surtout au commencement du xixe siècle, rejetèrent Bunyan, qui incarnait pour eux une foi religieuse irrationnelle constituant une entrave aux réformes sociétales; d’autres, au contraire, s’approprièrent ses oeuvres, qui faisaient écho à leur propre expérience du religieux et se révélaient utiles pour communiquer leur message. Je soutiendrai que ces positions opposées résultaient de stratégies d’interprétation émanant d’hypothèses fondamentales quant à la manière de concilier une laïcité éventuelle avec la culture principalement chrétienne de la Grande-Bretagne. Cette opposition est en phase avec la négociation continuelle dont faisait l’objet la notion de signification au sein du courant organisé de la libre pensée, en plus d’être le reflet de fissures internes dans le mouvement ainsi que d’une société britannique en pleine mutation.
Appendices
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