The Enlightenment

Origins of the Enlightenment

• A far-fetched theory suggests life on Earth originated from outer space.
• The origins of the modern world transformed the planet from darkness to illumination, liberty, technology and science.
• This transformation supposedly occurred near the end of the 17th century.
• This transformation brought cultural, social, and intellectual enlightenment.
• This unique event can have everything traced back to it.
• This transformation has been called enlightenment reason, freedom of thought, scientific rationality, and critical judgment.
• There is debate over who discovered and applied it.
• Possibilities include Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) or Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1726).
• This transformation banished prejudice and oppression.
• Secular humanists and religious fundamentalists share a common belief in the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason.
• The Enlightenment and the Age of Reason are seen as discontinuous from all that preceded it.
• The Enlightenment is a total antithesis to what had been before.
• Before the Age of Reason was the dominance of the Church, faith, and theological systems of thought.
• The Enlightenment broke away from the dominance of the Church, faith, and theological systems of thought

The Secular from the Sacred

• Historians believe current events are explained by preceding events.
• The age of faith preceded the age of reason
• If the Enlightenment wasn't a creation out of nothing, the secular may have come from the sacred.
• Humanism was from divinity, and the age of reason was born from an age of faith.
• Critical reason came from the religious culture it threatens.

Martin Luther and the Reformation

• How can religious faith be seen as the origins of the Enlightenment?
• Why would the Church advocate an age of reason, elevate reason, promote science, or give birth to our modern age?
• The Enlightenment had theological origins due to Martin Luther's actions in the 16th century.
• Martin Luther (1483-1546) requested the printer at Wittenberg University to erase the 'Tradition' from student resources.
• Traditionally, biblical texts had 'Tradition' notes surrounding them, explaining interpretations by the Church and past authorities.
• Luther wanted students to encounter the biblical text alone and decide the meaning for themselves.
• Philosopher Nick Wolterstorff explains that Western intellectuals had been schooled to consult texts for guidance on beliefs.
• Christian scriptures were central, along with ancient authorities for interpretation.
• Proper priorities among texts, right sense, and strategy of interpretation would reveal a body of truth.
• Figures like Saint Paul, Virgil, Aristotle, and Augustine would be seen as fitting together.
• Texts that seemed contradictory would be seen as facets of a complex truth.
• Luther's simple request wiped away the intellectual and cultural unity of Christendom.
• His act eroded Europe's religious and political unity.
• Luther did not realize his act would generate religious diversity, fragment Christendom, and fuel religious wars.
• The word of God had been mediated through the Church.
• Without the mediating structure of the Church, anyone could interpret God's word and law.

Ensuing Conflict and the Theology of Hyman

• There can be conflict between the meaning of a text and its traditional interpretation.
• Before the Reformation, the Church's tradition amplified and organically grew from the word of God.
• Scripture was the first wave of Church tradition, and its surroundings were a second wave that were both produced by the same body of Christ.
• The Reformation distinguished Scripture and Tradition as competing authorities.
• Luther used Renaissance humanist studies of original biblical languages.
• Reformers wanted to reveal the original revelation by peeling back Church traditions as they demonstrated a conflict between the two.
• Competing authorities led to critical judgments: Which authority should be followed, and how should disputes be resolved if the Church's authority was no longer decisive?
• Theologian Hyman sums up the situation, saying the western mind was awash with uncertainty as the pluralization of legitimacy gave rise to a situation in which some common source of authority and procedure would have to be found.
• The Protestants and Catholics both appealed to the authority and procedure that would be found, cutting across these disagreements and resulting in a universal ascent.

The Radical Reformation

• Dominic (Erdozain) argues that the beginnings of a critical rationality were forged in the controversy following Luther and the Reformation.
• The rationalism of the Enlightenment emerged from religious conviction and the soul of faith, coming primarily as a Christian outcry at persecution.
• Modernity can be characterized by the internalization of religious ideas.
• This began with spiritual rationalism, tracing back to the radical theology of Sebastian Franck (1499-1543) and Sebastian Castellio (1515-1563).
• Radical Reformation: The radical reformation was a third force between Catholic and Protestant that slowly moved from theology to an independent doctrine of reason grounded in conscience.
• Frank and Castellio worked with Luther and Calvin.
• Castellio abhorred religious persecution and converted to the Protestant evangelical faith.
• It was not long before Castellio was disillusioned with what he experienced in Calvin’s Geneva.
• Castellio reconsidered his theology after Calvin handed someone over to civil authorities for execution on the charge of heresy.
• Castellio moved from tolerance to cautious doubt, reason, and freedom from dogmatic orthodoxy, but retained a fervent faith in God and the Bible.

Castellio and the Logos

• Castellio stepped forward with a solution: reason would provide a line of rescue, but only for those willing to lay down the weapons of combat.
• Only an untainted pre-theological force could stand up to the violence of dogma, so reason pressed its case not as intellectual presumption, but as shelter.
• He believed this was a reorientation of faith and an appeal to the logos of God.
• The Greek word (logos) used in the bible has a number of meanings including that of reason, which, according to the gospel of John, ‘was the true light that lightens everyone that comes into the world, full of grace and truth.’ (John 1:9).
• Castellio concluded that reason is a sort of eternal Word of God.
• Castillo’s rationalism was spiritual, and Erdozian documents the case that elevating reason in religious disputes was a precursor to enlightenment rationalism.
• Striking prototypes of secular ideas can be discovered in philosophers associated with the origins of the European enlightenment, like Spinoza and Bayle.