« Qu’est-ce que la Religion universelle ? » : étude sur une question posée par Baudelaire

Abstract

In “My heart laid bare” Baudelaire writes about the “Universal Religion” devised for “the alchemists of thought,” “a religion that comes from man, considered as a divine memento.” The idea, as we read in the text, was inspired by the writings of Chateaubriand, De Maistre and those of the “Alexandrians”. And indeed, the two former authors wrote explicitly about a „universal tradition” that finds its fulfillment in the Catholic religion. It does not matter if we recognize the “Alexandrians” as representatives of the Neoplatonic school, the Alexandrian Fathers of Church, or disciples of Hermetism, the very term implies a tradition of both syncretic and mystic character that resembles gnosis. Baudelaire’s “Universal Religion,” despite his Catholic convictions, cannot be associated with Catholicism. Based on a universal transmission of myths and symbols, it rather refers to eternal truths about man as well as to the divine source of all beings – also in the modern world, which puts God’s existence in doubt.

Keywords

• Charles Baudelaire
• universal religion
• history of ideas
• 19th century French literature