In 1945, amid the ruins of war and the rise of existentialism, Simone de Beauvoir penned a short, punchy work titled Lettre à un religieux (Letter to a Religious). It reads less like a manifesto and more like a pointed coffeehouse conversation—one where you’re gently but firmly asked to rethink your entire worldview.
The “religious” in question is not a specific person but a type: someone who turns to God, tradition, and eternal truths to navigate life’s uncertainties. De Beauvoir, ever the existentialist, comes armed with a simple thesis: we don’t need God to live meaningfully, morally, or freely. In fact, we’re better off without Him.
Freedom Is All We Have
De Beauvoir’s central claim is existentialist to the core: humans are radically free. Not in a cheerful, “yay, possibilities!” way, but in a sobering, “no one’s coming to save us” kind of way. She writes that there’s no divine plan, no ultimate judge, no predetermined script. Just us—flawed, conscious beings thrown into the world, trying to make sense of things.
For de Beauvoir, the religious impulse—to appeal to a higher power or divine order—is a way of dodging that responsibility. If God dictates what’s right and wrong, we don’t have to figure it out ourselves. But that, she argues, is moral laziness. “Authentic morality,” in her view, only happens when we make choices because we believe they matter, not because someone told us they do.
Morality Without a Map
A key moment in the letter comes when she tackles the claim that atheism leads to moral chaos. On the contrary, she says: it leads to moral maturity. Morality, for de Beauvoir, isn’t about obedience—it’s about responsibility. There are no fixed rules etched in cosmic stone, but that doesn’t mean “anything goes.” It means we must wrestle with ambiguity and act with care, knowing others are as real and vulnerable as we are.
This is where her humanism shines. Her atheism isn’t cold or nihilistic—it’s deeply concerned with human dignity and agency. If there’s no afterlife, she reasons, then what we do here and now is all the more urgent.
Why Write to a Religious at All?
Some might wonder why she even bothers to write to a believer. Why not let sleeping gods lie? The answer, implicit throughout the letter, is that religion was still a powerful cultural force—one that shaped politics, morality, and daily life. By engaging directly (and respectfully), de Beauvoir invites believers into the existentialist conversation. Not to convert them, necessarily, but to challenge them: What if your faith is a shield against freedom?
A Short Letter, A Lasting Question
Lettre à un religieux isn’t a grand treatise—it’s a compact, elegant challenge. In its calm, clear tone, it asks us: What does it mean to live a good life without God? De Beauvoir doesn’t pretend the answers are easy. But she insists they’re ours to find.
For readers today, the letter still resonates—not just as a relic of 20th-century philosophy, but as an enduring invitation to live deliberately, question deeply, and, above all, take responsibility for the lives we create.
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