Some Irreligious Uses of the Bible in the Early Modern Period
Résumé
It may reasonably be claimed that, in the early modern period, the Bible constituted a reference equally important and inescapable for irreligious authors as for pious ones.1 By ‘irreligious authors’, I refer to all those who criticised, in part or globally, the established religions, in a way that exceeded confessional controversies. These critics and despisers of religion – in particular Christianity, omnipresent as it was – constantly used the Bible not only to shield themselves from accusations of impiety – all attacks on religion and the Scripture being highly suspect – but also against the Bible itself; that is, that which the Church considered as the essential vehicle of its message and teachings.