Chapter 1: The Marquis de Sade

• Jul, 12 2025

Chapter 1 introduces the Marquis de Sade as the clearest embodiment of the Enlightenment’s war against God, morality, and Biblical authority. While earlier heresies like Gnosticism masked their rebellion in pseudo-Christian terms, Sade represented a direct, militant hatred toward Christianity. His entire philosophy was one of defacing the image of God in man, and his sexual obsessions—especially perverse and violent ones—were not just indulgence, but acts of cosmic defiance.Rushdoony connects Sade’s worldview to the broader Enlightenment project: the shift from God to man, from divine law to human reason, and eventually from individual autonomy to statist control. This devolution, he says, started under the guise of rationality and virtue but quickly turned to nihilism, hedonism, and a contempt for beauty, goodness, and truth.Sade's writings—especially Philosophy in the Bedroom and Justine—called for the abolition of all law and morality, especially Christian morality. He viewed all natural acts, including incest, sodomy, and even murder, as justified expressions of the natural man. Simone de Beauvoir and other modern thinkers saw Sade not as mad, but as brutally honest and philosophically consistent. He wanted not just personal depravity but the societal overthrow of Christianity, advocating universal license and violence in the name of equality and freedom.Rushdoony also traces how Sade’s legacy continues today, not in his name but in practice. He sees the same pornographic, anti-authority spirit in modern media, education, and politics. The destruction of the family, normalization of perversions, and contempt for authority all trace back to Sadean logic—that if God is dead, then all is permitted. Pornography and politics become partners in revolution, as seen in both the French Revolution and contemporary culture.Rushdoony’s final point is a warning: an antinomian church is defenseless against Sadean evil. Without affirming God’s sovereignty and law, the church ends up compromised or complicit. The only answer, he insists, is a return to the authority of God's law, and the fearless declaration that God reigns—even in an age that seeks to erase Him.

Author

R.J. Rushdoony

Chalcedon Founder

Narrated by

Nathan F. Conkey

Narrator, teacher, missionary