RELIGIOUS


 * Religion in 1815-1848**

Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand


 * Catholicism:
 * There was a revival and return to Catholicism during this time. It was very important to people, and influenced their every-day lives.
 * A Frenchman, Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand, wrote the //Genius of Christianity// which became known as the “Bible of Romanticism.” This book mainly discussed sentiments of Romanticism and not about theology, history or rational thinking.
 * People were taught that they must care for others and do charitable acts to show their spiritually. They believed in converting as many people as possible to the Church. They believed every word in the Bible, especially the Old Testament, and followed it closely.
 * In 1828 the Catholic Emancipation Act was passes which it allowed Catholics to have civil rights.
 * Protestantism:
 * Many people were becoming enthusiastic about Methodism. This new time was referred to as the “awakening.”
 * Methodist missionaries traveled to liberal Protestant churches in France and Switzerland and were able to convert many people.
 * Germany was also highly influenced by the passionate evangelical preachers.
 * Positivism
 * A French philosopher, Auguste Comte, created Positivism which focused on logic reason.
 * Later, he called it the Religion of Humanity which had its own priests and a calendar of saints.
 * He believed that the history of man thus far could be put into three stages. The first one was when people believed in the super natural, because they had no other mean of explanation. Then people began think of possible causes for the questions they could not answer. Finally, people understand the laws of science that control the world.