Revolution statt Religion: Anacharsis Cloots – der atheistische Revolutionär
Abstract Revolution, not Religion. Anacharsis Cloots – The Atheist Revolutionary On March 24, 1794, Jean-Baptiste Cloots, a native of Kleve on the Lower Rhine who styled himself Anacharsis, lost his life under the guillotine in Paris. While the reasons for his execution are diverse, one important explanation can be found in his attitude towards religion in antithesis to that of Robespierre. Cloots’, seemingly inevitable development from deist (i.e. a representative of the natural religion in the tradition of Voltaire) to nihilist as well as his correspondingly evolving views on religion and church are very clearly connected to the different stages of his life. This article will, therefore, integrate Cloots’ biography with his religious views to illuminate his struggle against church and religion in antithesis to Robespierre. In retrospect, Cloots was pioneering not only for rejecting revelatory religion but even more so for his rejection of natural religion.