Name: Thomas Paine, Religious Prohibition

Date: 1500 - 1799

Location: Europe

SubjectReligious

MediumLiterature


Artist: Thomas Paine

Confronting Bodies: Christian Church

Date of Action: 1759

Specific Location: France

Description of Artwork: "...The Age of Reason was written between 1792-1795 while Paine was in prison for his opposition to the execution of Louis XIV." (The book)...is a wholesale attack on the Bible and on Christianity, written in deliberately flippant, and thus shocking style. It takes the deist point of view, epitomized by Paine's statement 'I believe in one God, and no more'... Paine condemned the Old Testament as being filled with "obscene stories and voluptuous debaucheries"; the New testament was inconsistent and the Virgin Birth "hearsay upon hearsay." Encyclopedia of Censorship, Jonathon Green pg. 3-4

Description of Incident: In was condemned as blasphemous and joined Paine's other work as a target for the censor.

Results of Incident: No copies survive.

Source: Encyclopedia of Censorship, Jonathon Green,Pg. 3-4

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