Banned by Roman Catholic Church in 1690

[Malebranche, Nicolas]

Traite de la Nature et de la Grace, par l'Auteur de la Recherche de la Verite. Derniere Edition, augmentee de plusieurs Eclaircissemens qui n'ont point encore paru. [with] Defense de l'Auteur de la Recherche de la Verite, contre l'accusation de Mr. de la Ville. Ou l'on fait voir, que s'il etoit permis a un particulier, de rendre suspecte la Foi des autres hommes sur des consequences bien ou mal tirees de leurs principes, il n'y auroit personne qui se pust mettre a couvert du reproche d'heresie.

Rotterdam: Chez Reinier Leers, 1684. Revised Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good / No Jacket. Item #2329099

Revised edition of the work first published in 1680. Boards lightly soiled, edges rubbed with top corner and bottom edge exposed.

336, [4], 46 pp. Vellum binding with yapped fore edge. Treatise on Nature and Grace, by the author of The Search for Truth, together with a defense of the author. Both were published anonymously by Nicolas Malebranche, a Catholic priest and rationalist philosopher whose attempt to synthesize St. Augustine's and Descartes' views was meant to demonstrate God's active role in all world affairs. Building on the ideas about the nature and abilities of God that he presented in The Search for Truth, Malebranche here expounds on the nature of God's volition, and God's activity in the natural world and interaction with human beings. At the behest of critic (and Cartesian philosopher) Antoine Arnauld and his supporters, this work was placed on the Roman Catholic Church's Index of Prohibited Books in 1690. The two had engaged in an extended polemic against one another following the publication of the treatise, of which Malebranche's Defense is but one example, and several of Arnauld's works were also banned, as was Malebranche's The Search for Truth (though not until 1709).

Price: $750.00