HI4324 Society and the Sacred in France, 1685-1815

Module Organiser: Professor Joseph Clarke
Duration: Michaelmas term
Contact hours: 2 hours per week
Weighting: 10 ECTS
Assessment: 20% essay, 80% examination

This module charts the changing relationship between church, state and society in France over the long eighteenth-century from Louis XIV to Napoleon. In their readings, students will examine themes such as the rôle religious orthodoxy and dissent played in the politics of the ancien régime, the relationship between social change, Enlightened ideas and secularisation and the violent conflict between church and state that developed during the Revolutionary decade. While this module traces the history of church-state relations from absolutism to the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period, it also examines the rôle of the sacred in everyday live and how this evolved over time as other, explicitly secular, value systems emerged over the eighteenth century. Students will explore these themes through an extensive literature and consider the contribution of other disciplines, anthropology, religious sociology and gender studies, to the writing of cultural history. Although coursework is based on engagement with this secondary literature, students will be encouraged to look at a range of primary sources materials as well.

The aim of this module is to analyse key developments in the history of church-state relations and the cultural history of religion in eighteenth-century France, through the study of primary and secondary sources

Bibliographical advice will be provided in the module handbook

Leaning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

• Analyse the principal themes and contexts of major developments in the cultural, political and social history of religion in eighteenth-century France
• Identify and search for relevant secondary literature
• Engage with relevant theoretical and critical approaches to the history of religion in France in this period
• Apply different techniques of evaluation and interpretation to relevant primary sources
• Critique relevant historiography and explore methodological issues including the contribution of other disciplines to the study of the cultural history of eighteenth-century France
• Present and discuss analysis of questions relating to the history of medicine during this period
• Analyse the impact on religion in France of different aspects of social, cultural and political change in this period