Between evolution and revolution : the idea of universal religion in Pierre­Simon Ballanche and Edgar Quinet

Abstract

The article proposes a comparaive study of the religious ideas of Pierre‐Simon Ballanche and Edgar Quinet, focusing on the relations that in their context the two authors establish between the notions of evolution and revolution. Both admit the existence of a divine revelation at once eternal and progressive that unfolds in history, in both also French Revolution and the rupture it has operated occupies a central place in the reflection on religion. But while Ballanche’s universal religion is closer to traditionalist and theosophical conceptions, Quinet’s one, taking the form of modern millenarianism, is representative of the current of secular humanitarianism.