13. Conclusion

For Warman, The Atheist’s Bible is the culmination of two separate narratives. On one level, it rigorously tracks Naigeon’s repeated allusions to and explicit quotations of the Éléments de physiologie across his corpus of work, and shows how these various references are brought together in his Mémoires on Diderot. At the same time, Warman recognises how she herself performs the role of ‘textual detective’ by magnifying hints and traces of the Éléments as they appear in the writings of Pierre-Jean-Georges Cabanis, Antoine Louis Claude Destutt de Tracy, and Dominique-Joseph Garat. In this way, The Atheist’s Bible not only provides a detailed study of Diderot’s hardline materialist work. Warman’s monograph simultaneously offers a historicist account of the French Revolution in terms of its various research committees, educational institutions, theological debates, and political transformations.