Jacques Bénigne Bossuet became so famous as an orator that a bust of him, alongside Demosthenes, Cicero, Daniel Webster, and Edmund Burke, among others, adorns the exterior of the Sanders Theatre at Harvard University. What images and eloquence of language accorded him such honor and reputation? This book by Agnès Lachaune, Le Langage du désir chez Bossuet, is an outstanding contribution to our understanding of Bossuet as it navigates the inspiring, sensual, and passionate language that guides his sermons and writings. How did Bossuet proclaim the value and kinds of desire in his work? Was he really a censor of all pleasure? Hardly, to the latter statement. Indeed, he would qualify some kinds of passions, pleasures, and desires as being worthier than others. This book greatly enriches our understanding of Bossuet’s vision for salvation and reveals the course Bossuet took in edifying his Versailles audience without offending them. A dominant voice for divine right of kings, especially regarding Louis XIV, Bossuet still supported and championed an active, dynamic, expansive nature of the heart for everyone in their search for God and salvation. Of course, desires of the soul are superior to desires of the flesh, which are condemned. Pleasures of the soul, knowing and understanding God, transcend the body. Bossuet’s language is rich, sumptuous, controlled, and persuasive, as he admirably steers the corporeal desires of the senses to a search for God.

The worthiest and greatest value of this book is its organization of the table of contents and parts. Since this book would be more for scholarly use than for a general audience, it deals extensively with lexical, nuanced, and philosophical meanings and analyses of Bossuet’s orations and writings. Part 1 is composed of five chapters that delineate Bossuet’s definitions of passion, and especially regarding the Augustinian, Thomistic, and Cartesian influences found in his work. In addition, this part analyzes the different kinds of passion and what is to be avoided and condemned as opposed to desire for the exaltation of God. Part 2, “Imagination in the Service of Spiritual Desire,” consists of a short introduction and chapters 6, 7, 8, and 9. Topics in these chapters include the significance of images used in nature, the idea of Noah’s ark and the Creation theories, the Fall from Grace, human vanities, images of natural disasters, and finally, persons of the Bible and history who are models of good or bad examples of desire. Part 3 is comprised of chapters 10, 11, and 12 as well as a conclusion. These chapters study the elegant, varied, poetic, descriptive, and sensual language of Bossuet.

The annexes consist of seven tables of lexical usages of certain words in Bossuet’s works, including the terms desire, passion, aspire, etc., and references to different sermons when these words are used, such as during Lent, funeral orations, and other texts. This source is exhaustive and extremely useful for a scholar of Bossuet or one studying and analyzing theology or philosophy through sermons. Related words dealing with passion, such as ardor, need, caprice, inclination, penchant, charity, love, and appetite, among other words, end this section. Part 2, “Index of the Principal Images in Bossuet’s Texts,” shows the most used images, starting with abeilles (bees) to voyage or voyageurs (travels or travelers). The next column interprets Bossuet’s usage of these words and then the source where they are used and the page numbers in this book where the words are mentioned. This is a marvel of research and an excellent tool for the excavation of Bossuet’s genius in oratory. A thorough bibliography of primary and secondary sources both modern and ancient regarding Bossuet, historical influences, critical essays, and analyses of his inspirations are listed here in thirty-two pages. This book is a requirement for any serious scholar who is studying the art of theological oratory, the age of Louis XIV, or the religious issues and rivalry of the day (notably between Bossuet and Fenelon), and it gives an overall understanding of the language of passion as employed by Bossuet.