Nicolas-Sylvestre Bergier
Nicolas-Sylvestre Bergier(French:[bɛʁʒje];31 December 1718 – 9 April 1790) was a FrenchCatholictheologian,known for his engagement with the atheistphilosophesof eighteenth-century France.
Life
[edit]Bergier was born atDarneyinLorraine.After a course of theology in theUniversity of Besançon,he received the degree of doctor, was ordained priest, and went to Paris to finish his studies. Returning toBesançonin 1748, he was given charge of a parish and later became president of the college of the city, which had formerly been under the direction of theJesuits.As a result of his bestselling polemicDeism Refuted By Itself(1765), Bergier was released from pastoral responsibilities by the French bishops in order to write full-time. In particular, his apologetics targeted the popular atheism ofRousseauandPaul d'Holbach,although - somewhat unusual for a polemical writer - he sought to understand his opponents' viewpoints.[1]He was a critic of thephilosophes,accusing them in particular of distorting the facts on social life inChinaandConfucianism.[2]He, however, frequented Enlightenment salons and was a personal friend ofDiderot.[1]
In 1769 theArchbishop of Paris,Christophe de Beaumont,appointed him canon of the cathedral, and from then on Bergier resided at Paris. He died atVersailles.[3]
Works
[edit]The works of Bergier are in the fields ofapologeticsand theology, except forLes elements primitifs des langues(Besançon, 1764) andL'origine des dieux du paganisme(Paris, 1767).
Bergier agreed to correct certain articles of theEncyclopédie,but found himself obliged to write entirely original articles which then formed theDictionnaire de théologieas a part of theEncyclopédie.This has been often edited, especially byGoussetin 8 vols. (Besançon, 1838) and Migne (Paris, 1850).
Other major works of Bergier include:
- Le Déisme refuté par lui-même(Paris, 1765; translated to English byCharles Cordell,1775[4]);
- La Certitude des preuves du christianisme(Paris, 1767, also published inMigne'sDémonstrations évangéliques,XI);
- Réponses aux Conseils raisonnables de Voltaire(Paris, 1771, also in Migne, ibid.);
- Apologie de la religion chrétienne- againstd'Holbach'sChristianisme devoilé(Paris, 1769);
- Réfutation des principaux articles du dictionnaire philosophique;
- Examen du matérialisme(Paris, 1771);
- Traité historique et dogmatique de la vraie religion(Paris, 1780, and 8 vols. 8vo., 1820).
Some of his writings concerningdivorce,the question of the mercy of God and the origin of evil, and one volume ofsermonswere published after his death.
Notes
[edit]- ^abLehner, Ulrich (2016).The Catholic Enlightenment: The Forgotten History of a Global Movement.New York, NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 22–23.ISBN9780190232917.
- ^Jonathan Israel,Enlightenment Contested(2006), pp. 661-2.
- ^Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913)..Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- ^Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913)..Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.
References
[edit]
- Notice historique,as an introduction to theDictionnaire theologique,ed. by Migne (Paris, 1850);
- Ferdinand JannerinKirchenlexikon,II, 408;
- Hugo von Hurter,Nomenclator(Innsbruck, 1895), III;
- Edmond DublanchyinDict. de theol. cath.,s. v.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Nicolas-Sylvestre Bergier".Catholic Encyclopedia.New York: Robert Appleton Company.
