Joseph de Maistre

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Joseph de Maistre

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Joseph de Maistre , 1753-1821, French writer and diplomat. Born in Savoy, he was Sardinian ambassador at St. Petersburg from 1803 to 1817. A passionate Roman Catholic and royalist, he was master of a rigidly logical doctrine and the possessor of a great store of knowledge. These qualities, combined with a fine ability in writing French prose, made him perhaps the most powerful literary enemy of 18th-century rationalism, in which he delighted to detect logical weakness and shallowness. His principal works were Du pape [on the pope] (1819) and Les Soirées de Saint-Pétersbourg [discussions in St. Petersburg] (1821). They develop his idea that the world should be one, ruled absolutely by the pope as the spiritual ruler, with no temporal ruler having an independent authority.

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de Maistre, Joseph

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church | 2000 | | © The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church 2000, originally published by Oxford University Press 2000. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

de Maistre, Joseph (1753–1821), French Ultramontane writer. He was influenced by 18th-cent. rationalism, but after the 1789 Revolution he became a reactionary, who saw in the Church the safeguard of political stability. In his main work, Du pape (1819), he argued that the only true basis of society lay in authority, which took the double form of spiritual authority vested in the Papacy and temporal authority in human kings. His ideas contributed to the overthrow of Gallicanism.

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E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "de Maistre, Joseph." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 7 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "de Maistre, Joseph." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (December 7, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-deMaistreJoseph.html

E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "de Maistre, Joseph." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Retrieved December 07, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-deMaistreJoseph.html

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Maistre, Joseph de

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church | 2000 | | © The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church 2000, originally published by Oxford University Press 2000. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Maistre, Joseph de. See DE MAISTRE, JOSEPH.

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E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Maistre, Joseph de." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 7 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Maistre, Joseph de." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (December 7, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-MaistreJosephde.html

E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Maistre, Joseph de." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Retrieved December 07, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-MaistreJosephde.html

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Related articles from newspapers, magazines, and more

New Maistre studies.(Joseph de Maistre's Life, Thought, and Influence: Selected Studies)(Book review)
Magazine article from: Modern Age; 3/22/2006; ; 700+ words ; Joseph de Maistre's Life, Thought, and Influence...University Press, 2001. 338 pp. IN Joseph de Maistre's Life, Thought and Influence Maistre...emergency measures to take, just as Joseph de Maistre was doing." (38) Maistre is a...
Maistre and Hobbes on providential history and the English Civil War.(Joseph de Maistre)(Thomas Hobbes)
Magazine article from: CLIO; 3/22/2001; ; 700+ words ; ...Isaiah Berlin, the Catholic thinker Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821)was a "terrifying...Stephen Holmes has characterized Maistre as a proponent of "antiliberalism...and commentators have depicted Maistre as a reactionary figure in the...
Joseph de Maistre's Life, Thought, and Influence: Selected Studies.(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Canadian Journal of History; 4/1/2003; ; 700+ words ; ...brilliant, critics of modernity, Joseph de Maistre remains an iconic figure in Western...for his reactionary positions, Maistre's penetrating and wide-ranging...yet, in these polemical disputes Maistre has often been caricatured instead...
From human nature to normal humanity: Joseph de Maistre, Rousseau, and the origins of moral statistics.(Critical essay)
Magazine article from: Journal of the History of Ideas; 1/1/2007; ; 700+ words ; ...Conservatives, and best exemplified by Joseph de Maistre in his writings on Rousseau. Indeed...was made in any text, it was in Maistre's On the State of Nature. Written...It constituted, specifically, Maistre's attempt to reverse the logic...
Considerations on France.
Magazine article from: The Review of Metaphysics; 3/1/1997; ; 700+ words ; Maistre, Joseph de. Edited and translated by Richard...works," and "Selected studies of Joseph de Maistre," in both French and English. The...are referred to Isaiah Berlin's "Joseph de Maistre and the Origins of Fascism" (1990...
BOOKENDS: A BOOK IN THE LIFE OF ALAIN DE BOTTON: The best adventures are bedroom adventures
Newspaper article from: The Independent - London; 5/7/2000; ; 700+ words ; ...year-old Frenchman, Xavier de Maistre, undertook a momentous journey...brother, the political theorist Joseph de Maistre, emphasised that it was not Xavier...no doubt remarkable men,' said Joseph. His brother had simply discovered...
T.S. Eliot and Charles Maurras. (critical and political theorist)(T.S. Eliot at 110)
Magazine article from: ANQ; 6/22/1998; ; 700+ words ; ...mistake, and this was identified by Joseph de Maistre, the most compelling of the early...inherent frailty, according to Maistre, God has protectively interceded...sacrilege. This tradition, for Maistre, embodied in church and state...
A History Lesson from 'the Master'
Newspaper article from: The Jerusalem Report; 6/11/2007; ; 700+ words ; ...masters of political analysis, Joseph de Maistre (1753- 1821). Initially a...Sardinian king from 1802-1817. De Maistre believed history is the best...Jack Lively, The Works of Joseph de Maistre, 257-8). I am convinced...
Plumping for Pinochet.(Fear in Chile: lives under Pinochet by Patricia Politzer)
Magazine article from: The Nation; 1/21/2002; ; 700+ words ; ...similar to those of the illiberal Joseph de Maistre, the arch-Catholic reactionary...zealotry of his contemporaries, Maistre offered a compelling alternative...as the masses. As fervidly as Maistre hated la secte of Jacobins and...
The Anatomy of Antiliberalism.
Magazine article from: Michigan Law Review; 5/1/1994; ; 700+ words ; ...works of thinkers as diverse as Joseph de Maistre and Roberto Unger into a coherent...portion of Part I to the former: Joseph de Maistre, Carl Schmitt, and Leo Strauss...argument. He begins his story with Joseph de Maistre, the counterrevolutionary Catholic...

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