linguistic:voice_change, stylistic:tone
Religious and political controversies

The authors of the Encyclopédie challenged religious authority. The authors, especially Diderot and d'Alembert, located religion within a system of reason and philosophy. They did not reject all religious claims, but believed theology and notions of God must be proven. Louis de Jaucourt therefore harshly criticized superstition as an intellectual error in his article on the topic. The writers further doubted the authenticity of presupposed historical events cited in the Bible and questioned the validity of miracles, such as the Resurrection. However, some contemporary scholars argue the skeptical view of miracles in the Encyclopédie may be interpreted in terms of " Protestant debates about the cessation of the charismata."

These challenges led to suppression from church and state authorities. The Encyclopédie and its contributors endured many attacks and attempts at censorship by the clergy or other censors, which threatened the publication of the project as well as the authors themselves. The King's Council suppressed the Encyclopédie in 1759. The Catholic Church, under Pope Clement XIII, placed it on its list of banned books. Prominent intellectuals criticized it, most famously Lefranc de Pompignan at the French Academy. A playwright, Charles Palissot de Montenoy, wrote a play called Les Philosophes to criticize the Encyclopédie. When Abbé André Morellet, one of the contributors to the Encyclopédie, wrote a mock preface for it, he was sent to the Bastille due to allegations of libel.

To defend themselves from controversy, the encyclopedia's articles wrote of theological topics in a mixed manner. Some articles supported orthodoxy, and some included overt criticisms of Christianity. To avoid direct retribution from censors, writers often hid criticism in obscure articles or expressed it in ironic terms. Nonetheless, the contributors still openly attacked the Catholic Church in certain articles with examples including criticizing excess festivals, monasteries, and celibacy of the clergy.