Dieux maudits. L'histoire du blasphème

The worldwide outrage caused by the cartoons of Mohammed and the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo in 2015 made it clear: blasphemy is not a relic of the Inquisition, it is more relevant today than it was a hundred years ago. Gerd Schwerhoff offers a broad history of blasphemy from Antiquity to the present day, via the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment. He explains why, for over two thousand years, people have insulted God, prophets and saints, and why these words and deeds unleash passions. He shows us the changing face of blasphemy through the ages, from the swearing peasants of the Middle Ages to the current tensions surrounding secularism, via Voltaire's fight against the crime of blasphemy.