Date of Award

Fall 12-20-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Religion (M.A.R.)

First Reader

Jennifer A. Herdt

Second Reader

Bryan Garsten

Abstract

This thesis examines Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Profession of Faith of the Savoyard Vicar, paying particular attention philosophic influences of the Vicar, especially as pertains to metaphysics. It fills a void in the scholarship, as there is not much work in general–and especially in recent years–on the relationship between Plutarch, Calvin, and Rousseau. Indeed, although Rousseau’s love for Plutarch is often acknowledged, it is seldom explored; and, when it is explored, it is typically only with an eye to the political realm, and never the metaphysical dimension. Calvin, when mentioned in association with Rousseau at all, is typically interpreted as a minor influence on Rousseau’s political thought, and certainly of no importance when it come to his theological or epistemological work. In other words, neither Plutarch nor Calvin are given their proper due, and when Rousseau’s debt to them is acknowledged at all, it is seldom placed in the proper place. My thesis argues instead that both Plutarch and Calvin played a critical role in shaping the views of the Savoyard Vicar, who is one of Rousseau’s chief characters in Emile, and whose lengthy discourse on religion was so successful that it was (and still is) often published as a standalone work, which is the chief work I investigate here.

Ultimately, this thesis demonstrates that the Profession of Faith is not, as is often posited in recent scholarship, intended by Rousseau to be merely a salutary teaching for political utility, devoid of sincere religious conjectures, as much of the recent scholarship following Leo Strauss has suggested; rather, I posit that the Vicar’s Profession is a highly informed epistemological and metaphysical work. Although I do not fully answer the question of the exact relationship between the Vicar’s religious views and whether or not they are shared by Rousseau himself, I nonetheless indicate that by laying the groundwork for an original and novel approach to the Profession of Faith as a serious work of epistemology, metaphysics, and even theology.

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