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Compassion's Edge examines the language of fellow-feeling—pity, compassion, and charitable care—that flourished in France in the period from the Edict of Nantes in 1598, which established some degree of religious toleration, to the official breakdown of that toleration with the Revocation of the Edict in 1685. This is not, however, a story about compassion overcoming difference but one of compassion reinforcing division: the seventeenth-century texts of fellow-feeling led not to communal concerns but to paralysis, misreading, and isolation. Early modern fellow-feeling drew distinctions, policed its borders, and far from reaching out to others, kept the other at arm's length. It became a central feature in the debates about the place of religious minorities after the Wars of Religion, and according to Katherine Ibbett, continues to shape the way we think about difference today.Compassion's Edge ranges widely over genres, contexts, and geographies. Ibbett reads epic poetry, novels, moral treatises, dramatic theory, and theological disputes. She takes up major figures such as D'Aubigné, Montaigne, Lafayette, Corneille, and Racine, as well as less familiar Jesuit theologians, Huguenot ministers, and nuns from a Montreal hospital. Although firmly rooted in early modern studies, she reflects on the ways in which the language of compassion figures in contemporary conversations about national and religious communities. Investigating the affective undertow of religious toleration, Compassion's Edge provides a robust corrective to today's hope that fellow-feeling draws us inexorably and usefully together.

Faith-based and secular approaches to politics and foreign policy have often been involved in a kind of uneasy and adversarial'contest.'However, the world produced by the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, in conjunctions with the (often radical) Enlightenment, the impact of the French Revolution and the advent during the 20th century of popular an secular mass ideologies, strongly suggested that a modern'winner'had emerged; especially in the West, most faith-related tensions on various issues appeared to have been primarily resolved on the basis of non-religious considerations and choices. There can be little doubt, though, that the 21st century is witnessing a global resurgence of religion that has manifested itself both peacefully and violently. This'return of faith'has implications for International Relations theory and also poses significant challenges for statesmanship and the pursuit of the national interest. At a minimum, religious beliefs have to be treated with the utmost seriousness. Furthermore, significant questions are inevitably raised about the scope, issues and manner in which personal faith ought to influence domestic and foreign policy. The last time that similar questions were posed with a comparable intensity in the West was during early modern European history. The era's often savage and religiously-inspired conflicts produced profound intellectual efforts aiming to guide statesmanship through these challenges. The result was the development of raison d'deat thinking and philosophy. By focusing on the relevant works of Niccolo Machiavelli, Francesco Guicciardini, Givovanni Botero and Justus Lipsius, this book presents the concept's roots, evolution and arguments. The focus in this book is then turned to the career of Cardinal Richelieu, (perhaps the era's most successful statesman) and the key role that reason of state thinking played in his actions is analysed. This book tries to ascertain to what extent, and in what ways, issues of faith and religion formed part of Richelieu's attempts to define and pursue the national interest of seventeenth century France.

This book explores the political and religious world of early Bourbon France, focusing on the search for stable accord that characterised its political and religious life. Chapters examine developments that shaped the Bourbon realm through the century: assertions of royal authority, rules of political negotiation, and the evolution of Dévot piety.