P. Krzemiński: Advantages and disadvantages of the masterpiece Chateaubriand "The Genius of Christianity"

Christendom’s Genius (1802)was given to France by Providence. It's hard to say otherwise. After a time of the top blasphemy in the past of Europe, which was the French revolution, which burned cathedrals, murdered priests, and made matrimony a prostitution which was proclaimed in the bosom of nature, a prominent author of Romanticism Chateaubriand wrote a book celebrating the beauty of Christianity. In any respects, the political situation was conducive to him. Napoleon rejected the radicalism of the revolution, but he utilized religion for his own purposes erstwhile he ceased to favour it, he rejected it entirely.

What did this French author compose that awakened the French hearts that were weary in Christian blood, in the plunder of church goods, and the profanation of the most sacred sacraments? He undertook to uncover the full mysticism of Christianity, something that seemed impossible, and yet that was the goal of Chateaubriand. In his work he wrote about Catholic doctrine, Christian virtues, the poetics of Christ’s religion, or spiritual literature. The full of France read about it, unfortunately it was a fashion that gave a temporary sobering up. Today, even the figures of Michael the Archangel are feared by the French, which they remove from the city centre. If it's a ridiculous myth, why can't the French bear this angel so much? Even utilizing pure reason, we should laughter at their fear due to the fact that it expresses natural fears within a man who tells him that he will turn to dust and no longer emergence in glory unless he obeys divine law.

A French romanticist melts his description with the toughest hearts. Even Protestants should feel lifted erstwhile reading his description of the Blessed Mary:

Those who see only shameless mysteries in the Pure Queen of Angels are indeed worthy of regret. And yet actual things could be said about this mortal female who became the immortal parent of God the Redeemer, of this Mary, who is besides a virgin and a mother, embodying the 2 most divine states of woman, of this daughter of ancient Jacob, coming with the aid of human poorness and sacrificing her Son, to save the household of his fathers. This tender mediator, standing between us and the Ancient One, with the appropriate goodness of her sex, opens to our sad confessions a heart filled with pity and soothes the wrath of God: here is simply a delightful dogma that soothes the fear of God, bringing beauty between our nothingness and divine majesty! (F.R.Chateaubriand, Christendom’s Genius, Dębogóra 2003, p. 55, crowd. Anna Loba.)

Where the French describe Catholic mystics, Tradition, rites and science, there it is hard not to be impressed, the author shows the soul of the romantic, whose glow of candle, the beauty of the altar and our God hidden in the Eucharist. This is simply a definite advantage of the song.

However, as a individual who loves literature, I had large doubts erstwhile the author compared Christianity's poetics to works from the Roman Empire and ancient Greece. Chateaubriand convinces that Christianity is in everything higher and more beautiful than ancient works. I don't think that's true. Christianity does not radiate and enlighten human minds that it is greater than Homer's poesy and Greek mythology. In fact, the beautiful bodies of the Greek goddesses, the food and the dew in the eye of man, will have more beauty than the Christian virtue. The strength of Christ’s religion lies in something completely different. It is not to compete with another traditions for beauty. Christendom surpasses all another systems and beliefs by expressing the fact about God’s redemption of man. The fact here is simply a key and decisive criterion. Catholicism will not convince a pagan who shows the beauty of people and nature. due to the fact that a pagan sees God himself in God’s work, he does not want to look further and deeper. A Christian must make pilgrimages, reject beauty, if these do not interact with God's work. Who will deny the beauty of Greek Aphrodite? Yet we pray to Christ, not to Aphrodite.

However, we should realize the intentions of Chateaubriand, who knew that the hearts of the French read in philosophical sages would not see the brilliance of truth, but the charm of poetics. Hence, his work should be considered 1 of the most valuable in the past of French literature.

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