Abstract
The contribution of Daniel Guérin (1904-1988) to the ‘rehabilitation’ of anarchism in the 1960s is well known, as is his commitment to anticolonialism and gay liberation. Based on biographical research on Guérin’s early years examining the reasons for his ‘conversion’ to revolutionary politics (given his social origins in the Parisian <i>grande bourgeoisie</i>), this chapter asks to what extent we can say that his political commitments from 1930 onwards were motivated or underlain by religious or spiritual ideas, or represented some kind of political or secular religion. Using unpublished archival sources as well as Guérin’s autobiographical and fictional writings, I examine the various childhood influences on his ethical and spiritual ideas, especially his discovery as a teenager of Tolstoy and his close friendship during the 1920s with the novelist François Mauriac, as evidenced in their correspondence, which makes clear the spiritual crisis Guérin struggled through as he sought to reconcile his concern with sexual liberation, his evident fideistic tendencies, and the reactionary stance of the Catholic church. Moral outrage and guilt over his own privileges led him to seek redemption through a Gandhian ‘religion of service’, putting himself at the service of the Revolution (with a capital R) in order to help the oppressed and exploited achieve liberation. Love (‘fraternity’, ‘<i>mana</i>’) was central to his thinking and to his responses to others’ suffering; for him it was constitutive of what it is to be human and therefore enabled self-realisation through ‘merging with the people’. This faith in Revolution is an aspect of what Gentile calls a ‘religion of humanity’, and of what Aron referred to as a ‘secular religion’ – a doctrine that promises ultimate salvation, but in <i>this</i> world.
Highlights
The contribution of Daniel Guérin (1904–1988) to the ‘rehabilitation’ of anarchism in the 1960s is well known, as is his commitment to anticolonialism and gay liberation
Based on biographical research on Guérin’s early years examining the reasons for his ‘conversion’ to revolutionary politics, this chapter asks to what extent we can say that his political commitments from 1930 onwards were motivated or underlain by religious or spiritual ideas, or represented some kind of political or secular religion
The Tolstoyan influence was strong on the mother’s side of the family too: a ‘consummate polyglot’, Daniel’s great-g randmother had translated two of Tolstoy’s novels into French.13. These Tolstoyan tendencies were evident at the time of the Great War, when the young Daniel’s feelings of incomprehension and revulsion at the killing and the suffering were shared by his ‘antimilitarist’ father: ‘the absurd slaughter disgusted him to the point of nausea.’14 Invited to participate in some propaganda work designed to boost national morale, Marcel Guérin refused outright, writing afterwards to a friend: ‘I confess I suffered an attack of anarchism
Summary
The contribution of Daniel Guérin (1904–1988) to the ‘rehabilitation’ of anarchism in the 1960s is well known, as is his commitment to anticolonialism and gay liberation. 1965); translated by Paul Sharkey as No Gods, No Masters: An Anthology of Anarchism (Edinburgh: AK Press, 1998), Revolution as Redemption:Daniel Guérin, Religion and Spirituality 153. The purpose of this paper, is to focus on one particular aspect of what he described as ‘the unorthodox paths by which a son of the bourgeoisie sought to merge with the people and to put himself at the service of the Revolution’: what experiences and intellectual influences of a spiritual nature led him to reject bourgeois society in favour of other values—in the process undergoing a series of ‘conversions’.9 Prolific though he was, Guérin never devoted any of his writings to religion or spirituality as such, and this will the-. His subject matter will be determined by the age he lives in — at least this is true in tumultuous, revolutionary ages like our own — but before he ever begins to write he will have acquired an emotional attitude from which he will never completely escape.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
