The Religion of Law: Francisco Bilbao and Edgar Quinet´s Contributions in the Critique of Revolution

Abstract

Francisco Bilbao was an important critic of the revolutions of the independence in Latin America, who recognized in catholicism the principal source of the difficulties for the advent of the republic in Latin America. In this paper we review arguments of Bilbao, inscribing them in the intellectual French context. The connection of the work of the Chilean with these French developments, especially, his nearness with Edgar Quinet’s thought, analyzed from some few elements, allows us to recognize the central point of his critique to the independence revolutions, his vision of republic and the links of this critique with religion and philosophy.