Fifth Dialogue, Part Three Summary and Analysis

"Frenchmen, Some More Effort if You Wish to Become Republicans" begins with a simple proposal under the subheading Religion. The unnamed author proposes that a new religion, based upon the Olympic gods of Greece, be established for the new French Republic. His reasoning is simple. The simple Christian god that monarchical France had before the Revolution required only one thing of its followers: obedience. To the author's mind, this Christian god is a construct of oppressors who choose its edicts as a way of subjugating the people. The Olympians, on the other hand, have human traits and yearnings. Romans and Greeks that honored them did so with acts of valor, cunning, and seduction, not mere prostration. At the close of the Religion section of the pamphlet, the author warns Frenchmen everywhere that the loss of...