France is burning. Edmund Burke told us why in 1790.
The mind will not endure a void. Throw off the Christian religion that built a civilization, and something uncouth takes its place. That is not a theory about France. It is what is on the streets tonight.
Guns ‘N Rosaries with Adrian and Rob. The France riots are the news. The argument is older than the news. In 1790, writing against the French Revolution, Burke warned that if a people threw off “that Christian religion which has hitherto been our boast and comfort, and one great source of civilization amongst us,” some “uncouth, pernicious, and degrading superstition” would take its place. He knew the mind will not endure a void.
Paris is not short of superstition. It is short of the faith that made Joan of Arc and Saint Louis IX.
In this episode:
- The Burke line, in full, and why he wrote it against the Revolution
- What the France riots actually are — and what they are not
- The void: what fills a nation after it throws off God
- St. Joan of Arc and St. Louis IX, and the France that was
From Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790):
“We are apprehensive (being well aware that the mind will not endure a void) that some uncouth, pernicious, and degrading superstition might take the place of it.”
