Commitment requires going through hell Maurice Lachâtre and his Nouveau Dictionnaire Universel (1865–1870)

Maurice Lachâtre is a man of action and of letters: he wants to ensure people’s emancipation, so he criticize the Catholic Church for the idea of eternal damnation frightening his believers. In the Nouveau dictionnaire universel (1865-1870), published after his first exile, he rejects the Catholic hell. Influenced by socialism et spiritism, he states that hell is a transitory state waiting for God’s salvation (or rather the liberation from the oppression).