Examines the evolution of the positive nature of atheism as a political philosophy in French Enlightenment thinkers

Written from the perspective of atheists or those sympathetic to atheism as opposed to the perspective of theologians
Explores the larger context of the history of atheism: where negative atheism gave way to positive atheism, and where positive atheism eventually made room for metatheism exemplified in the writing of Diderot
Shows the profound consequences of atheism for political thought in its various defences of republicanism
Adds new dimensions to our understanding of the contribution of Bayle, Meslier, d'Holbach and Diderot to the history of ideas

Charles Devellennes looks at the the religious, social and political thought of the first four thinkers of the French Enlightenment: Pierre Bayle, Jean Meslier, Paul-Henri Thiry d'Holbach and Denis Diderot to explicitly argue for atheism as a positive philosophy.

Atheism evolved considerably over the century that spans the works of these four authors: from the possibility of the virtuous atheist in the late 17th century, to a deeply rooted materialist philosophy with radical social and political consequences by the eve of the French revolution. The metamorphosis of atheism from a purely negative phenomenon to one that became self-aware had profound consequences for establishing an ethics without God and the rise of republicanism as a political philosophy.

Culminating in the work of Diderot, atheism became increasingly critical of its own position. By the late 18th century, it had already proposed to move past its positive formulation into a form of metatheism. Diderot, who sees atheism as both a critical tool to assess religious, social and political institutions and as an object of his own critique, foreshadows the rise of a post-Enlightenment conception of atheism.