L’excès et la nouveauté Le rôle des controverses dans le processus de sécularisation à la fin du xvii^e siècle chez Arnauld, Nicole, Simon et Le Clerc

The subject of this paper concerns the way new representations of history arise between the end of the 17th and the beginning of 18th centuries. The religious field, the religious controversies (concerning the status of the biblical text, the continuity of the Tradition) represent a paradoxical but decisive place of secularization. The analysis of the oriental quarrel allows one to specify the details of this secularization of history from the standpoint of religion.