Cult of Reason
E475534
French Revolutionary cult
atheistic movement
civic religion
deistic movement
state-sponsored belief system
The Cult of Reason was a deistic, state-sponsored atheistic belief system promoted during the French Revolution that sought to replace traditional Christianity with a civic religion based on Enlightenment principles of reason and secularism.
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
French Revolutionary cult
ⓘ
atheistic movement ⓘ civic religion ⓘ deistic movement ⓘ state-sponsored belief system ⓘ |
| aim |
to desacralize the Catholic Church and its institutions
ⓘ
to promote rational morality without revealed religion ⓘ to replace Catholic Christianity with a civic religion ⓘ |
| associatedWithEvent |
French Revolutionary dechristianization of 1793–1794
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
French dechristianization campaign ⓘ |
| corePrinciple |
Enlightenment philosophy
ⓘ
anti-clericalism ⓘ reason ⓘ rejection of traditional Christianity ⓘ secularism ⓘ |
| country | France ⓘ |
| doctrine |
denial of revealed religion
ⓘ
emphasis on human rationality as highest authority ⓘ veneration of abstract Reason rather than a personal God ⓘ |
| endCause |
political reaction under Robespierre
ⓘ
replacement by the Cult of the Supreme Being in 1794 ⓘ |
| historicalAssessment | often described as the first state-sponsored atheistic religion ⓘ |
| historicalPeriod | French Revolution NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| ideologicalBasis |
Enlightenment rationalism
ⓘ
radical anti-clericalism ⓘ |
| inception | 1793 ⓘ |
| language | French ⓘ |
| locatedIn | French First Republic NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| majorCeremony | Festival of Reason NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| majorCeremonyLocation | Notre-Dame de Paris NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| notableSupporter |
Jacques Hébert
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Pierre Gaspard Chaumette NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| opposedBy |
Committee of Public Safety (later phase)
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Maximilien Robespierre NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
Cult of the Supreme Being
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Enlightenment deism ⓘ French Revolutionary de-Christianization ⓘ civil religion ⓘ |
| religiousOrientation |
atheism (practical and polemical)
ⓘ
deism ⓘ |
| replaced | Roman Catholicism in France (de facto, in some areas) ⓘ |
| replacedBy | Cult of the Supreme Being NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| ritualFeature |
festivals celebrating Reason and Liberty
ⓘ
use of allegorical female figures representing Reason ⓘ |
| sphereOfInfluence |
Paris
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
various French communes during the Terror ⓘ |
| sponsoredBy | revolutionary authorities in France ⓘ |
| symbolicTransformationOf | Notre-Dame de Paris into a Temple of Reason ⓘ |
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.