Proudhon et Dieu,Used

Proudhon et Dieu : cette confrontation tonnera, et peuttre dtonnera, auprs de ceux qui ne connaissent gure du plus mconnu des grands socialistes du XIXe sicle que sa clbre apostrophe : ' La proprit, c'est le vol. ' En revanche, on cite peu la formule non moins paradoxale qui lui fait pendant : ' Dieu, c'est le mal. ' Il existe pourtant entre l'une et l'autre un lien troit, qui est la volont de purger du poison absolutiste l'ensemble des relations humaines. Issu d'une famille dont la pauvret a laiss peu de place la dvotion, le jeune Pierre Joseph Proudhon fut un catholique semblable la plupart de ses contemporains jusqu' sa quinzime anne. S'il ' perdit ' alors la foi, scandalis par l'indiffrence de la hirarchie catholique la condition des pauvres, il n'abandonna pas pour autant toute inquitude religieuse. Au contraire, on le voit, influenc par le courant traditionaliste et, sous l'emprise de la jeune fille qui parat avoir t son unique amour, s'imaginer l'apologiste d'un christianisme qui, dgag des compromissions politiques, se ferait hardiment rformateur de l'ordre social. Mais cela ne concerne encore que l'extrieur. L'autre ct des choses est que, mme aprs s'tre proclam avec vhmence le ngateur d'un tre suprme qui limiterait la libert de sa cration, il n'a jamais cess de s'interroger sur l'existence de ce Dieu, sa nature et surtout son rle dans le concert de l'histoire. Celui qui, prcdant un Nietzsche et par certains aspects l'annoncant, s'tait proclam le contempteur de Dieu en a aussi rv la prsence derrire une porte semblant sur le point de s'entrouvrir. Il lui est alors arriv de s'crier : ' Qui est l ? ', dans une angoisse peuttre proche de l'esprance. Proudhon and God: this confrontation will astonish, maybe even shock, those whose only knowledge of the leastknown of the great 19th century socialists is his famous remark 'Property is theft'. Strangely enough, his other famous paradoxical quip, 'God is evil' is less often quoted. Yet the two quotations are closely linked, by the desire to purge human relations of absolutist poison. Such is the aim of this book in which the author presents the metaphysical background of Proudhon's work. Born into a family whose poverty left little room for devotion, the young Pierre Joseph Proudhon was a Catholic, like most of his contemporaries, until the age of fifteen. If he then 'lost faith', scandalised by the indifference of the Catholic hierarchy to the living conditions of the poor, he did not give up all interest in religion. On the contrary, we see him submit to the influence of a traditionalist current, and that of a young woman, who seems to have been his only love, imagining himself as an apologist of a Christianity purged of its political compromises; a robust reformer of the social order. But that's only the superficial appearance. On the inside, we can observe that even after vehemently proclaiming the negation of any Supreme Being that would limit the liberty of his creation, Proudhon never ceased to ask himself questions about the existence of God, His nature and especially His role in the great concert of history. He who, in advance of Nietzsche and in many ways heralding him, proclaimed himself to be the denigrator of God, also dreamed of God's presence behind a door that seemed to be slightly ajar... At that moment, he cried out, 'Who's there?' with anguish that was perhaps mingled with hope.