From the Blog Posts of MSI Press Authors: Arthur Yavelberg asks "Voltaire or Shakespeare?"

 

 



Today's shared blog post comes from Arthur Yavelberg, author of A Theology for the Rest of Us: "Voltaire or Shakespeare."

Voltaire was an 18th Century French playwright.  Highly influential regarding the French Revolution,  he was a rabid atheist and satirist. He wrote:  “One hundred years from my day, there will not be a Bible on earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity-seeker.”    Ironically, it is also said that, some 50 years later, the Protestant Bible Society purchased one of the chateaus where Voltaire had his works published.  Apocryphal or not, the fact remains that far many more people today are familiar with the Bible than with Voltaire or his masterwork, “Candide.”  

I have no problem with Voltaire’s atheism.  I do have a problem with his being rabid about it.  Rationalist that he has been proclaimed to be, one would think his utter disdain for any set of beliefs would be considered far too emotional, especially on so uncertain a topic.  For example, whether historically accurate or not, tying a Bible to a donkey’s tail and leading a funeral procession to a cemetery to dramatize the fate of the sacred was totally in keeping with his faith in materialism and the spirit of “Candide.”  For me, to quote another playwright of note, Shakespeare, “The lady doth protest too much.”  


To read the rest of the post, click HERE.


To read more posts by and about Arthur and his book, click HERE.



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