When Michel Onfray asserts his atheism, one is struck, upon reading this book, by its religious nature. A Christian atheist? No! But a man filled with doubts, who is searching for God or at least trying to understand the mechanisms of Christianity. This book, written after a stay at the Trappist monastery, is a treatise on religious history.
Michel Onfray evokes the grand siècle, then the Age of Enlightenment. God does not exist! Yet, he talks about him. He mentions the religious quarrels between the church and the Jansenists, Port Royal, Tancé, who reformed the Trappist order, Pietism, and the king who became devout towards the end of his life.
Michel Onfray details the lives of cloistered monks following strict observance. The day’s progression is paced by silence. Life and death are the two alternatives for cloistered monks. They have renounced life to better prepare for death. The author revisits the abbot of Rancé and his conversion: leaving the secular world after the death of his mistress, he wants to make peace with God.
Michel Onfray the atheist tries to understand, overturning Pascal’s wager, yet, no matter what he says or does, God always returns, reappears. The essence of the soul is also a subject of debate for the philosopher. The atheist author proclaims on every line that God does not exist, yet he cannot help but talk about him.
Atheist or rather in search of God? Trying to understand is already an admission. Strict observance is the quest of a man plunged into doubt. He is an atheist, but is he certain? This whole book raises the question to which he does not have the answer.
Thierry Jan
