The Age Of Reason

“The circumstance that has now taken place in France of the total abolition of the whole national order of priesthood, and of everything appertaining to compulsive systems of religion, and compulsive articles of faith, has not only precipitated my intention, but rendered a work of this kind exceedingly necessary, lest in the general wreck of superstition, of false systems of government, and false theology, we lose sight of morality, of humanity, and of the theology that is true.”

This sentence functions as the entire second paragraph of the book’s first chapter. It explains the immediate circumstances that convinced Paine to write the book in the first place. The French Revolution began in 1789 as a popular uprising against absolutist tyranny. In many ways, it had been inspired by the American Revolution, to which France had lent its support. In 1793, however, the French Revolution radicalized to the point that every vestige of the old regime, from the monarchy to the Catholic Church, was swept away in a bloodthirsty frenzy of executions-by-guillotine. Paine approved of the Revolution’s institutional reforms, but he opposed its revenge-driven violence and even argued for the new revolutionary republic to spare the life of the former Louis XVI, who was no longer king. On a broader level, he saw that this “general wreck” of French society threatened to plunge France into nihilism and despair unless the people could find a new source of faith and moral guidance, which the “true theology” of Deism supplied.

“I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.”

Only one paragraph separates this sentence from the previous quotation. This is the first item in Paine’s statement of faith. It is important because Paine often was (and is) mistaken for an atheist.