Inexcusabiles: Salvation and the Virtues of the Pagans in the Early Modern Period

1. Introduction.- Part 1. The Humanist Background.- 2. Montaigne's Gods.- 3. The Virtues of the Pagans between Prophecy and Rhetoric in the Work of Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola.- 4. Frenzied Sibyls and Most Venerable Prophets: Sebastian Castellio's Struggle with the Biblical Canon and The Response within the Reformation Camp.- Part II. The Theological Debate.- 5. The Problem of the Pagans and the Number of Elect.- 6. Gentiles in Court. From Superficial Idolatry to Implicit Faith: The Unveiling of Grace and Salvation in the Works of Paschal Rapine de Sainte-Marie (1655-1659).- 7. Beatitude and the Scope of Grace: Early Modern Morals and the Paradoxes of Felicity.- Part III. The Philosophers and the Unbelievers.- 8. Bayle and the Question of the Salvation of the Infidels.- 9. The Virtue of the Pagans and the Salvation of the Infidels in the Works of Fénelon.- 10. 'I Don't Know Why We Take so Much Pleasure in Thinking that People are Damned': Leibniz and the Question of the Salvation of Pagans.- Part IV. The New Pagans.- 11. The Truth of the Matter: Observations on Inclusivism and Exclusivism.- 12. Jesuits and Chinese Atheism: Back and Forth between Europe and China.