02916cam a22003373u 4500 76773 UtSlPG 20260610134758.0 m cr n 260607r20251788utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d UtSlPG en iso639-1 BR Necker, Jacques, 1732-1804 De l'importance des opinions religieuses. English Of the importance of religious opinions Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg, 2025 1 online resource : multiple file formats text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier Release date is 2025-08-31 Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) "Of the importance of religious opinions" by Jacques Necker is a treatise of moral and political philosophy written in the late 18th century. It contends that religious belief is indispensable to public order and private happiness, countering efforts to ground morality solely in law, reason, or social esteem. The work promises wide scope—from the social uses of worship and relations with sovereigns to arguments for God’s existence, tolerance, and Christian morality. The opening of the treatise presents a translator’s note, a detailed table of contents, and an introduction in which the author, reflecting after public service, argues that administration, law, morality, and religion form one system whose harmony secures social prosperity. He laments fashionable indifference and sets himself between harsh intolerance and flippant unbelief, proposing to test whether a secular “moral catechism” can replace religion. Chapter I asserts that basing virtue on the supposed union of private and public interest fails amid real social inequalities, limited education, and strong passions; laws reach actions but not intentions, whereas religion uniquely addresses imagination, conscience, youth, and the afflicted, offering simple, binding commands and hope beyond the present. At the start of Chapter II, he argues that civil and penal laws and public opinion cannot control hidden or ambiguous wrongs; only conscience, grounded in God, can, and even judges need both statute and inward moral responsibility, while reputation and public rewards are narrow, fallible incentives beside religion’s universal, interior authority. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Originally published: London: J. Johnson, 1788 Christianity -- Early works to 1800 Wollstonecraft, Mary, 1759-1797 https://archive.org/details/religiousopinion00neckuoft https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76773 117498 117498