Researches about the causes of AtheismIn response to Mgr. Dupanloup's brochure, by a Catholic.
Brochure in-8 °, at MM. Didier et Compagnie, 35, quai des Augustins, and at the Revue Spirite office. - Price: 1 franc, 25 cents; by post: 1 franc, 45 cents.
The author of this remarkable writing, although sincerely attached to Catholic beliefs, set out to demonstrate to Bishop Dupanloup what are the real causes of the plague of atheism, and of the incredulity that invades society; according to her, interpretations inadmissible today, and irreconcilable with the positive data of science. She proves that, in many points, the Church has deviated from the real meaning of the Scriptures, and the thought of the sacred writers; that religion can only gain from a more rational interpretation that, without touching the fundamental principles of dogmas, would be reconciled with reason; that Spiritism, founded on the very laws of nature, is the only possible key to a sound interpretation, and by that very fact, the most powerful remedy against atheism. All of this is said simply, coldly, without emphasis or exhilaration, and with strict logic. This writing is a complement to Faith and Reason, by M. J. B., and to the Dogmas of the Church of Christ explained according to Spiritism, by M. Bottinn.
Although a woman, the author shows great theological erudition; she quotes and comments with remarkable accuracy the sacred writers of all times, and with almost as much ease as Mr. Flammarion quotes scientific authors; we see that they are familiar to her, which leads us to say that she is probably not in her beginnings in these matters, and that she must have been some eminent theologian in her previous existence. Without sharing all her ideas, we say that from the point of view where she placed herself, she could not speak better in a different way, and that she did a useful thing for the time in which we are now.
