Abstract EN:

We are trying to show how coherent were a group of disciples of Bossuet and their social and economic thought as it manifested itself in the critique of contemporary society, their basic theory of society, the historical or fictitious models they set up as examples and their concrete reform proposals. Their thought was often close to the thought of the "reformateurs" of the end of the seventeenth century, but they were catholic thinkers first of all. They confronted the problem of the secularization of society, due to the rise of the modern state, as well as the first advances of the "enlightenment" they were conscious of the historical changes and refused all absolute anthropological pessimism, even if they experienced their time as a time of crisis - an intellectual, social and economic crisis. Based on the results of our study, two conclusions could be made : the fact that every christian social synthesis is perishable, but also that catholic social thought shows remarkable conceptual, ideological and theological consistency throughout the centuries.