he lived in post-revolutionary europe, but couldn't get his mind out of the dark ages. the core of his writings is that he hypothesized that a cultural revolution that happened in the 1600s and 1700s might maybe happen some time in the future, unless we revert back to the religion that we threw away hundreds of years previously, as some kind of warning. he was utterly out of touch with reality around him. the people that knew him thought he was an idiot, and they were right.