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All auctions / Books, Maps & Manuscripts / M. Necker - De L'Importance des Opinions Religieuses - 1788
Title: The Importance of Religious Opinions Author / Editor: Jacques Necker (1732–1804) Place / Publisher / Year: London 1788 Format / Size: Duodecimo / Small Octavo (21x14) Collation (Extent): 1 ff., 332 pp. Content Summary (Contents): In this significant philosophical-political treatise, Jacques Necker, the then French Minister of Finance, engages with the social role of religion. He argues vehemently against the ideas of the radical Enlightenment and the emerging atheism, which sought to secularize morality and the state entirely. Necker's core argument is that purely worldly laws and punishments are not sufficient to maintain the moral order and the inner cohesion of a society. As he explains in Chapter II, the law can punish only visible and provable crimes; hidden injustices (e.g., ingratitude, betrayal among friends, injustice) remain unpunished. For this, religion is needed as an inner moral authority within the person. The work, however, is not a plea for religious dogmatism: Necker – himself a Protestant – explicitly calls for religious tolerance, freedom of conscience, and a morality based on reason. Condition: • Cover: Contemporary full leather binding of the period (brown marbled leather / veau marbré). Spine with five true cords and subtle gold tooling (partly worn). Edges and corners aged and slightly rubbed, joints intact, binding solid and stable. • Edges: Three-edged original marbled cut (decorative element and dust jacket of the period). • Paper: Handmade, sturdy wove paper from the 18th century with pronounced ribbed texture. Internally clean, occasionally minor foxing or slight browning, which is absolutely typical and age-appropriate for this age. No distracting handwritten annotations in the text."
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