Announcements Office hours this week are cancelled; please e-mail for an appointment. Next short paper due November 12 in class (prompts will be posted on the website next weekend). Final paper due December 5 (in class). Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, poster for La Revue Blanche (The White Review, a magazine), 1895.
History B357-Spang Modern France: Society, Culture, Politics 20 October 2012 Modern Science, Modern Religion Sacré Coeur Basilica, Paris 1875-1919
L Année terrible (the terrible year), August 1870-May 1871 CHRONOLOGY July-Sept. 1870 Franco-Prussian War ends in Napoleon III s surrender in Sedan Sept.- Jan. 1871 Prussian siege of Paris Mar.-May 1871 The Commune; French army besieges Paris COSTS Alsace and northern Lorraine became part of German Empire France pays large war indemnity to Germany 30,000 communards killed by French army; 80,000 Parisians jailed or exiled to New Caledonia André Adolphe Disdéri, Communards in their coffins photograph, 1871. Modern Science, Modern Religion: Background and Review
First Republic, 1792-1804 Second Empire, 1852-1870 Directory, 1795-1799 Consulate, 1799-1804 provisional government, 1870-1875 First Empire, 1804-1815 Third Republic, 1875-1940 First Restoration, 1814 Hundred Days, spring 1815 The Republic is the form of government Restored Monarchy, 1815-1830 that divides us the least. Louis XVIII, 1815-1824 Adolphe Thiers Charles X, 1824-1830 July Monarchy, 1830-1848 Louis Philippe, 1830-1848 provisional government; Second Republic, 1848-1851 French Regimes, 1792-1940 Modern Science, Modern Religion: Review-emergence of political stabiity
What is Modern? modern politics modern society (and economy) structures that allow for mass participation in public life industrialization and mass production (peasantry replaced by modern working class). Lourdes. Paris. Dole modern culture awareness of change, which seems to be speeding up, such that all that is solid melts into air * and nothing is left but dizzying excitement of the always new as experienced via mass consumption and mass communication modern beliefs strong demarcation between domain of sacred and non-sacred science as a matter of facts versus other, faith-based knowledge * Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848)
Secularization as a feature of modern societies: Increasing separation of sacred (religious) from profane (worldly) Individuals may be devout, but social meaning is not based on transcendent order Emphasis on rational argument vs. revealed wisdom In western Europe, the eighteenth century marks not only the dawn of nationalism but also the dusk of religious modes of thought. The century of Enlightenment, of rational secularism, brought with it its own modern darkness. With the ebbing of religious belief, suffering did not disappear. What was required was a secular transformation of contingency [that is: accidents ] into meaning. As we shall see, few things are better suited to this than the idea of the nation It is the magic of nationalism to turn chance into destiny. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (1983). secularization defined Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (France, 1789)
Church of the National Vow to the Sacred Heart of Jesus This appeal for divine pity will complete our expiation for the impious acts that have brought upon France the wrath of God. With France regenerated, the Church will emerge triumphant from its long trials Archbishop of Toulon, 1871. Statue of Louis IX (Saint Louis, 1214-1270) Raised like a lightning rod on the highest point of our capital, this church will protect us against the lightning bolts of divine anger. Founded upon faith and patriotism, the church will recount to future generations the sad story of our sufferings and of their causes. Bishop of Perpignan, 1874. Statue of Saint Joan of Arc, 1412-1431 secularization or the modernization of religion?
Sacré Coeur, 1875-1919 Eiffel Tower, 1887-1889 competing monuments in modern Paris
Paris Opera (designed by Garnier, built during Second Empire), postcard, 1900. Sacré Coeur (designed by Paul Abadie, built 1875-1914), postcard early twentieth century. competing landmarks in modern Paris
Saints and Martyrs: Catholic Ones, National Ones 1791-1806 Temple of Great Men 1806-1821 combined functions 1821-1830 Church of Ste Genevieve 1830-1848 Temple of Glory 1848-1851 Temple of Humanity 1851-1870 Church of Ste Genevieve 1885- present Panthéon Sacré Coeur compared to the Panthéon competing landmarks in modern Paris
The Sacred Heart, a rival history of Modern France Sacred Heart of Jesus (lithograph on machine-made lace), approx. 1880 Religion and the French Republic: competing modernities
Laïcété (Laicity) and French Republicanism To Monsieur the Teacher: the law of 28 March 1882 The law has two features that are complementary without being contradictory: on the one hand, it excludes any particular dogma from the school program and, on the other, it emphasizes moral photograph from Archives départmentales of the Deux Sevres primary school in Niort, approx. 1900 and civic education. Religious instruction belongs to the family and to the church; moral education belongs to the schools. In passing this law, the legislature doubtlessly wanted to separate school and church, to guarantee freedom of conscience for both teachers and students, and to distinguish two domains that have long been confused: that of faith, which is free and individual, and that of knowledge, which must be common and available to all. The Law of 28 March does more than that, however: it also affirms our wish to create a truly national education, and to base this education on the ideas of duty and of rights Jules Ferry, circular to schoolteachers, 1884. Making the Nation: Schools
The Saint and the Scientist in Third-Republic France Lourdes grotto, Virgin of the Immaculate Conception plaque in Dole showing Pasteur vaccinating village children
Bernadette Soubirous, 1844-1879 Lourdes, Hautes Pyrenées
Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in European History Medieval and Early Modern Nineteenth Century men women adults clergy children laypeople 1858 Bernadette s first visions; great skepticism souvenir postcard from Lourdes 1862 Episcopal Commission confirms 1872 first pilgrimage to Lourdes organized by Assumptionist Order 1883 Medical Bureau of Lourdes opened; construction begins on basilica
What Bernadette Means: St. Bernadette s body, on display in Nevers (Nièvre) Bernadette s Cradle shop on Grotto Boulevard, Lourdes postcard of Lourdes, approx. 1910
Louis Pasteur, 1822-1895 1862-1864 discovers microbes 1870s anthrax vaccine 1880s rabies vaccine As soon as the physician and the chemist leave their laboratories, they become incapable of the slightest discovery. The boldest conceptions, the most legitimate speculations, take on body and soul only when they are consecrated by observation and experience. Eliminate the laboratories, and the sciences will become the image of sterility and death. Outside the laboratory, scientists are like unarmed soldiers on the battlefield. Louis Pasteur (1871) Albert Edelfelt, Louis Pasteur (1885) Modern Science, Modern Religion, mirror images: Bernadette and Pasteur
Pasteur s tomb in the Pasteur Institute, Paris Modern Science, Modern Religion, mirror images: Bernadette and Pasteur