Protestants & the French Revolution: Derek Visser MA MRP Defence

On Tuesday, April 28, Derek Visser will defend his MA Major Research Paper:
"The Times They are a Changing: Protestant Responses to the French Revolution: 1787-1795"

The defence takes place in MacKinnon Extension 2020 at 10:00 am. All welcome!

abstract: On the hundredth anniversary of the French Revolution Protestant theologian Abraham Kuyper attacked its legacy remembering it as anti-religious, and mourning its secularizing influence. Many historians of religion have echoed this view citing the Enlightenment as anti-religious in nature. When the prevailing opinion seems to be that the logical conclusion of the Enlightenment was secularization how should historians interpret the French Protestants' seeming willingness to welcome the Revolution with open arms? This project traces the development of Protestant political thought as they struggled to gain civil equality in France between the Wars of Religion and the Revolution. Using textual evidence from Protestant leaders and Revolutionary supporters of religious tolerance it makes the case that the support French Protestants found in the Enlightenment's attacks on intolerance made them amicable to Revolutionary change even when those changes were anti-religious.