Benjamin Constant as a philosopher of religious sentiment

The paper deals with Benjamin Constant’s philosophy of religious sentiment. Constant is known primarily as political philosopher defender of Liberalism; at the same time, during his life Constant was interested in religion. The paper follows development of Constant’s views till his Athenaeum Lectures of 1818 and mature opus magnum “On Religion” (5 vols., 1824–1831). Constant’s philosophy of religious sentiment in many traits differs of the similar projects that were elaborated in the German-speaking space. Constant visited Germany for a long time, accordingly, he was acquainted with German-speaking philosophy and theology (Semler, Kant, Schleiermacher and many others); however, it did not shape Constant’s worldview. Rather, Constant used German ideas to answer on his own questions. Hence, Constant’s views are original in some traits. Firstly, unlike German colleagues he does not concentrate on epistemology of religious sentiment, but on the political and ideological aspects of religious feeling. Secondly, Constant opposes the sentiment itself to its forms changing in history as well as illustrates the latter by materials of ethnology and anthropology. Thirdly, this opposition represents the key scheme of phenomenology of religion, that is why Constant influenced not German but Dutch researchers, more precisely C. P. Tiele and G. van der Leeuw. Fourthly, Constant unlike German thinkers due to his explicite liberal views strongly criticizes church institutions. In general, despite of considerable distance between Constant’s and his German collеagues philosophers’ views, Constant is one of the closest to the German philosophy French thinkers. Constant's philosophy of religion is known primarily because of his political fame.