Analysis: A Macat Analysis of Lucien Febvre's The Problem of Unbelief in the Sixteenth Century cover art

Analysis: A Macat Analysis of Lucien Febvre's The Problem of Unbelief in the Sixteenth Century

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 15 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
More purchase options

Analysis: A Macat Analysis of Lucien Febvre's The Problem of Unbelief in the Sixteenth Century

By: Joseph Tendler
Narrated by: Macat.com
Get this deal

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £6.57

Buy Now for £6.57

What is the past - and what can we really know about it? This is the big question that 20th-century French historian Lucien Febvre works his way through in 1942's The Problem of Unbelief. Relying on his own innovative technique championing "problem-based history", Febvre focuses specifically on 16th-century French writer François Rabelais to answer one controversial question: Was Rabelais, as historians had always agreed, really one of his country's first atheists?

Febvre conducted thorough research on Rabelais himself and the times he lived in to challenge this accepted view. He studied the mind-sets of the day - what he dubbed "mentalities" - and came to the radical conclusion that Rabelais was not - indeed could not be - a nonbeliever. Why? Because it would have been impossible for a man to conceive of a world without God at that time and in that place.

Febvre's view of 16th-century religious attitudes remains controversial to this day, but the groundbreaking techniques he introduced while writing his history changed the discipline forever.

©2016 Macat Inc (P)2016 Macat Inc
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet