The Evangelical Universalist Forum

An extract of Montaigne

Evangelical Universalism
#1

Just came across this interesting extract from ‘An Apology for Raymond Sebond’ (Montainge’s Essays, trans by M. A. Screech):

'Moreover, the powers and actions of our souls must be examined not elsewhere but here, at home in our bodies. Any other perfections they may have are useless and irrelevant; it is for their present state that their whole immortality will recieve its acknowledged rewards: each is entirely accountable for the life of a human being. But it would be an act of gross injustice to lop off the soul’s powers and resources, to strip her of all her weapons and then to take the very time when she lies weak and ill in prison - a time of repression and constraint - and to make that the basis for a judgement leading to endless, everlasting punishment; it would be unjust to limit consideration to so short a span, to a life that may have lasted a mere two hours or, at he very worst a hundred years - an instant in proportion to infinity - and then, from that momentary interlude, to order and establish, once and for all, the whole state of her future existence. To reward or punish on the basis of so short a life would be disproportionate and iniquitous.

To get out of this difficulty, Plato wants future rewards and punishments never to exceed a hundred years and always to be proportionate to the actual length of a man’s life. Quite a few Christians too have imposed temporal limits on to them.’

(penguin classics ed., pp.617-18).

#2

Pog I love M.A. Screech!!! :smiley: ;and Montaigne :smiley: has gotta be on the list! I know Montaigne also spoke with eloquent disgust about the cruelty with which Christian killed each other during the Reformation upheaval. But I’d not seen that quotation before. Great find!!!

Here’s what he says about religious cruelty

Montaigne was horrified and amazed that Frenchman could torture Frenchman for the sheer fun of it during the Wars of Religion, amusing themselves by enjoying the ‘pleasant spectacle’ of the anguished twitching of their enemies as they slowly tortured them to death (Montaigne Essay, Book II, ch.2, ‘On Cruelty’ paraphrased by Screech, ‘Laughter at the foot of the cross’ p. 17)

It always seems to me that in the Early Modern Period when hell was more important than a matter of private opinion, people who seriously believed in hell tended to act out hell in this life. That has to be one of my major arguments against what you term ‘hellism’

#3

Well I don’t know enough about Montaigne to judge his religious opinions … he was a Catholic, but somewhat questioning, yet also determined to hold to ancient doctrines rather than ‘new’ Reformation style ones; he was embraced by Enlightenment athiesm (or Deism), and was on the forbidden index for a while … I really don’t know whether he was an anti-hellist, more just skeptical perhaps???

#4

Well put him in ‘disputed’ then - the quotation is too good to pass up. He was a Christian humanist - which means that he was concerned to use scholarship to strip away the accretions and superstitions of medieval Catholicism (so the concern for the ancient faith often meant a respect for Origen and other Church Fathers who inclined to universalism, as it did for Erasmus). He was lionised by sceptics and Deists because he highlighted the curtly and superstitions that religion generated in his day - but from my point of view this is also salutary to orthodox Christians and we should not let the sceptics claim him as one of their own.

:slight_smile:

#5

This is the gist - which can be cut down -

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de (1533 –1592)French Catholic writer and statesman. He was one of the most influential writers of the French Renaissance, known for popularising the essay as a literary genre. He became famous for his ability to merge serious intellectual exercises with casual anecdotes and autobiography—his massive volume ‘Essais’ (translated literally as “Attempts” or “Trials”) contains, to this day, some of the most widely influential essays ever written

In his own time, Montaigne was admired more as a statesman than as an author. During the Wars of Religion in France, Montaigne, a Roman Catholic, acted as a moderating force, respected both by the Catholic King Henry III and the Protestant Henry of Navarre.

He is most famously known for his sceptical remark, ‘Que sçay-je?’ (‘What do I know?’ in Middle French; modern French Que sais-je?). This has lead to him becoming revered as the father of modern scepticism. However, it is in keeping with the thinking of other Christina humanists – such as Erasmus in ‘Praise of Folly’ – who stress that our human ability to understand ultimate truth is limited. We see through a glass darkly, and therefore must be tolerant of those who differ from us.

#6

:slight_smile: O.K, you’ve convinced me to give him a place in the disputed category - I suppose he really was more anti-hellist than universalist, but it seems he was pretty open about almost anything - so who knows? (What do I know?) :slight_smile:

At some point I’ll probably trim down the rather lengthy entry - for the moment I’ll let it stand, since I like Montaigne. :slight_smile:

#7

He’s kind of proto - he’s asking the right questions showing the right processes of heart and mind at a time when you had to be mad to asset universalism. It’s hard to think thoughts against the tide - the thoughts come vaguely at first