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  • Dieu à nostre commerce et société. Montaigne et la théologie ed. by Philippe Desan
  • David M. Posner
Dieu à nostre commerce et société. Montaigne et la théologie. Edited by Philippe Desan. [Travaux d’Humanisme et Renaissance, 444.] (Geneva: Librairie Droz. 2008. Pp. 312. $86.00. ISBN 978-2-600-01245-4.)

Although avowedly not a professional theologian, Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) remained closely engaged with theological questions throughout his writing career. He could hardly have avoided such engagement, since he was also— his occasional protestations to the contrary notwithstanding—an active participant in public life in the midst of the French Wars of Religion. Montaigne’s contemporaries, beginning with the papal censors, certainly took an interest in what he had to say about theological issues, and the last century or so has seen no slackening of interest; there has been a steady stream of quality work on Montaigne and religion, ranging from the venerable studies of Maturin Dreano (Paris, 1936) and Henri Busson (Paris, 1962) to Malcolm Smith’s more recent work (Geneva, 1981, 1991) and the special issue of the Bulletin de la Société des Amis de Montaigne (1993) titled “La question de Dieu.”

The present volume, the proceedings of a conference held in Paris in 2007, is a worthy contribution to this conversation. It re-examines Montaigne’s relationship to theology and religious practice in the context of his life and works, the latter including not only the Essais but also the Journal de voyage and his translation of the Theologia Naturalis of Raymond Sebond. It comprises nineteen essays by a range of distinguished montaignistes, including literary scholars, philosophers, and intellectual historians, and is divided into three sections: “Théologie et théologiens,” “Sebond et la Théologie naturelle,” and “Pratiques religieuses et pratique des textes.” The somewhat arbitrary divisions notwithstanding, the essays are, for the most part, in fruitful dialogue with one another. Following the editor’s general introduction, the first group of essays deals with the various ways in which Montaigne explores theological questions while simultaneously denying the adequacy of theological discourse as such to its subject. André Tournon, Jan Miernowski, Frédéric Brahami, and Bernard Sève variously address the latter issue, whereas Vincent Carraud and Emmanuel Faye discuss the essay “Des prières,” in which Montaigne seems to stake out a rigorist position on prayer and penitence at odds with the Tridentine position defended by the papal censors. Along with Sève and Tournon, Alain Legros shows how Montaigne gradually separates theological from human(ist) discourse so as to liberate his own writing.

The second section focuses on Montaigne’s translation of Sebond and its complex relationship to the Apologie de Raymond Sebond. The Apologie in fact refutes the rationalist position of the Theologia Naturalis, and the essays in this section show how Montaigne negotiates the tensions among Sebond, the doctrines of the post-Tridentine Church, and his own potentially heterodox positions. Jean Balsamo, Philip Hendrick, and Thierry Gontier discuss Montaigne’s prudence in translating and then distancing himself from Sebond, whereas Olivier Millet looks at linguistic issues in the translation, showing how Montaigne moves beyond both [End Page 352] Scholastic Latin and the literary language of the Vulgate toward a new humanist literary ideal. Philippe Desan explores Montaigne’s interactions with the Congregatio pro indice librorum prohibitorum and usefully reproduces the Congregation’s censures of the Essais in an appendix.

The essays in the third section are more diverse, while still having many points of contact with those of the first two sections. John O’Brien returns to the question of prayer, whereas Jesús Navarro-Reyes approaches the issue of confession via the late work of Michel Foucault. Amy Graves explores the social and geographical dimensions of religion in Montaigne’s Journal de voyage. Jean Céard’s characteristically lively contribution looks at Montaigne reading St. Augustine via Vivès and shows us Montaigne reveling in the digression that characterizes all three texts. Jean-Robert Armogathe, in a brief but pithy essay, situates Montaigne’s praise of Julian the Apostate in the larger context of a Renaissance rehabilitation of Julian, suggesting that he serves as...

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