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Voltaire on Judaism and Christianity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2009

Allan Arkush
Allan Arkush
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, N.Y.
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Extract

Voltaire's voluminous writings on religion contain, as is well known, a large number of attacks on the Jewish people and Judaism. Historians have offered a variety of explanations for this sustained animosity on the part of a great rationalist and proponent of religious toleration toward a people and a religion which continued, in his own day, to be victimized by unjust persecution. While much remains in dispute, there does seem to be general agreement that Voltaire attacked Judaism at least in part because its most sacred texts constituted the foundation of Christianity, the religion he wished to destroy.

Type
Articles
Information
AJS Review , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , November 1993 , pp. 223 - 243
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Jewish Studies 1993

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References

I would like to thank the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation for the research fellowship that helped support the writing of this essay. I am very grateful to Joel Leeman and Frances Malino, who were most generous with their criticism of earlier drafts of this essay.

1. Emmrich, Hanna, Des Judentum bei Voltaire (Berlin, 1930), p.256.Google Scholar

2. Gay, Peter, Voltaire′s Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959), p.353Google Scholar

3. Arthur Hertzberg, The French Enlightenment and the Jews(New York: Columbia University Press, 1968), p.283.

4. Ibid., p.285.

5. Ibid., p.307.

6. Ibid., p.299.

7. Ibid., p.10.

8. It must be said, however, that he provides very little evidence of this.He does note that in his Lettres de Memmius à Cicéron(1771) Voltaire has Memmius describe the Jews as follows: “They are, all of them, born with raging fanaticism in their hearts, just as the Bretons and the Germans are born with blond hair.I would not be in the least bit surprised if these people would not some day become deadly to the human race” (p.300).But this solitary statement, placed in the mouth of an ancient Roman, hardly constitutes proof that Voltaire himself believed that contemporary Jews posed an ongoing threat to European civilization.Google Scholar

9. Hertzberg, French Enlightenment and the Jews,p.302.

10. Gay, Peter, The Party of Humanity (New York, 1964), p.107.Google Scholar

11. , Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary, trans.Peter Gay (New York 1962), s.v.“Sect,” p.465.Google Scholar

12. Ibid., s.v.“Religion,” p.445.

13. Profession de Foi des Theéistes,in Ouevres Completes de Voltaire, ed. Louis Moland (Paris, 1885), vol.27, p.56.

14. Lettres de Memmius, Ibid., vol.28, p.459; La Bible enfin Expliquie, Ibid., vol.30, p.94, n.1.

15. Homélies prononcees à Londres en 1765, Ibid., vol.26, p.335.

16. “Religion,” p.445.

17. Profession de Foi des Thiistes,p.67.

18. Ibid., p.56.

19. “Religion,” pp.447–48.

20. Philosophical Dictionary,s.v.“Toleration,” p.487.

21. Cf.Emmrich, Das Judentum bei Voltaire,pp.147 ff., for a host of additional examples.

22. Dieu et Us Homtnes, Oeuvres Completes,vol.28, p.162.

23. Philosophical Dictionary,s.v.“Hell,” p.248; Traité sur ToUrance, Oeuvres Complétes,vol.25, p.79; Dieu et les Hommes, Ibid., vol.28, p.169.Cf.Emmrich, Das Judentum bei Voltaire,p.162.

24. La Bible enfin Explique′e,p.94, n.1.

25. Profession de Foi des Thiistes,p.59.

26. Cf.Emmrich, Das Judentum bei Voltaire,pp.176–187, for more examples.

27. Cf.especially pp.127–146.

28. Philosophical Dictionary,s.v.“Jepthah,” p.325.

29. Traité sur Tolérance,p.67.

30. La Bible enfin Expliquée,p.101, n.1.

31. Ibid., p.220, n.1.

32. “Toleration,” p.483.

33. Emmrich, Das Judentum bei Voltaire,pp.178–179.

34. Dieu et les Hommes,p.225.

35. Ibid., p.166.

36. Ibid., p.167.

37. “Toleration,” pp.483–484.

38. Dictionnaire Philosophique, Oeuvres Completes,vol.18, p.160.

39. Histoire de I′établissement du Christianisme, Ibid., vol.31, p.50.

40. Dieu et les Hommes,p.221.

41. Histoire de I′Etablissement du Christianisme,p.54.

42. Dieu et les Hommes,p.193.

43. Ibid., p.52.Cf.also Traiti sur Tolerance,p.83.Peter Gay has stressed this point (Party of Humanity,p.107).He quotes an entry in his notebooks where Voltaire describes the treatment accorded to the Sadducees as “a beautiful example of tolerance.” He also identifes statements in his correspondence which indicate that “this is his true opinion.”

44. De la Paix Perpdtuelle, Ouevres Completes,vol.28, p.106.

45. Examen Important de Milord Bolingbroke, Ibid., vol.26, p.220.

46. Ibid., p.222.

47. Ibid., p.227.

48. Profession de Foi des Theistes,p.69.

49. René Pomeau, La Religion de Voltaire(Paris, 1956), pp.372–374.

50. ′Toleration,“ p.489; Catechisme de I′Honnite Homme, Oeuvres Completes,vol.24, p.534; Dieu et les Homines,pp.197 ff.; Histoire de I′établissement du Christianisme,pp.66–68.

51. Dieu et les Hommes,pp.209–210.

52. Ibid., p.221; cf.also Philosophical Dictionary,p.486.

53. Ibid., p.223.

54. Ibid.

55. Histoire de I′établissement du Christianisme,p.72.

56. Dieu et les Hommes,p.225.

57. Cf., for example.Philosophical Dictionary,s.v.”Arius“ (pp.93–94), ”Creed“ (pp.218 ff.), ”Divinity of Jesus“ (p.240), ”Hell“ (pp.248–249), ”Original sin“ (pp.415–17), “Transsubstantiation” (p.493).Cf.also Dieu et les Hommes,pp.225–229, and Histoire de I′Etablissement du Christianisme,pp.70–72.See William H.Trapnell, Christ and His “Associates” in Voltairian Polemic: An Assault on the Trinity and the Two Natures(Saratoga, Calif., 1982), for an exhaustive treatment of Voltaire′s assault on many of these dogmas.

58. Cf., for example, Examen Important de Milord Bolingbroke,pp.296 ff., and Catichisme de I′HonnZte Homme,pp.535 ff.

59. Le Diner du Comte de Boulanvilliers, Oeuvres Completes,vol.26, p.541.

60. Ibid., pp.276–293.

61. Ibid., p.298.

62. “Toleration,” pp.482–83.

63. Profession de Foi des Thfistes,p.70.

64. Ibid., pp.231 ff.

65. Gay (Party of Humanity,p.107) makes a somewhat similar argument: “Voltaire showed with grim humor that the Jews of antiquity, superstitious and barbarous as he paints them, were less superstitious and barbarous than the Christians.”

66. Gay (Ibid.) notes this too.It is, furthermore, not only the Jews who surpass the Christians in this respect, but the Moslems and the pagans as well.Cf.Homilies Prononcies d Londres en 1765,pp.336, 353.

67. “Toleration,” pp.482–83.

68. Histoire de I′Etablissement du Christianisme,pp.80–81.

69. Ibid., p.81.

70. Ibid., p.83.

71. Ibid., Le Diner du Comte de Boulanvilliers,pp.539–540.

72. Profession de Foi des Thiistes, p.64