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Chapter 21: Enlightenment: Ally or Enemy? (1492 – 1815) – Part II (1650 – 1750)
For our next meeting on Tuesday, August 26, please read the next three sections of Chapter 21: Social Watersheds in the Netherlands and England (1650 – 1750), Gender Roles in the Enlightenment, and Enlightenment in the Eighteenth Century.
UPDATE – Chapter 21: Enlightenment: Ally or Enemy? (1492 – 1815) – Part I (1492 – 1700)
Benoît Louis Prévost, An engraving from the 1772 edition of the “Encyclopédie”. Truth, in the top center, is surrounded by light and unveiled by the figures to the right, Philosophy and Reason.
Today we delve into the first part of a series of studies on the Age of Enlightenment and its effects on Christianity.
Here, we delve into challenges to the authority of the Church and the Bible, the philosophy of Baruch de Spinoza, and the aftermath that the 1492 Expulsion of the Jews in Spain and Portugal had in fostering religious skepticism and doubt.
Chapter 21: Enlightenment: Ally or Enemy? (1492 – 1815) – Part I
“A Philosopher lecturing with a Mechanical Planetary” by Joseph Wright, 1766
We will be having our next meeting on Tuesday, August 12.
Please read the first two sections of Chapter 21: Natural and Unnatural Philosophy (1492 – 1700) and Judaism, Skepticism, Deism (1492 – 1700), and please answer one of the following questions:
- What are the origins and purposes of Freemasonry or Masonic practice? What attitudes of the Reformation did they inherit? What connections did they have with more esoteric sources of sacred literature like hermetic books, Neoplatonic writings, and the Jewish Cabbala?
- Describe the impact of the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries. How did the study and progress of science (or ‘natural philosophy’) impact theology during this time? What were some of the religious ideas of Sir Isaac Newton? What was the primary focus of Francis Bacon’s project in extending human knowledge through empiricism and how did it relate to the story of Adam and Eve?
- Describe the impact the 1492 expulsion of the Jewish population in the Iberian peninsula had upon Europe as they spread to other territories. How did they view the Reformation? How did the culture of doubt and skepticism of religion come about as a result of oppressive Church practices like the Iberian Inquisitions? How did the religiously tolerant atmosphere of places like Amsterdam foster religious skepticism?
- Discuss the impact of the thoughts and works of Baruch de Spinoza. What were some of his beliefs about God and religion that many found so dangerous? Describe his two important works Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670) and Ethics (1677). Why were these works banned?
- Discuss how the Huguenots were behind many of the anti-religious writings during the Enlightenment. Explain how the historical criticism of the Bible during this time led to serious doubts about its divine inspiration.
- How did the observations of Pierre Bayle, Thomas Hobbes, early Quakers, Isaac La Peyrere, and the discovery of other races of people in the Americas affect thought about the authority of the Church and the authority of the Bible?
- What is deism and how did it gain prominence during the Enlightenment? How did Protestant Evangelicals and Pietist counteract deism?
I know some are really excited to read this part of history and the importance of the Enlightenment, so it should be fertile ground for some interesting discussions and insights in the upcoming weeks ahead. Really looking forward to our discussions.
Please submit your essays by Monday, August 11.
How God Acts – Non-interventionist Divine Action
“The Ancient of Days”, William Blake, 1794
Throughout my life I’ve experienced a wide range of beliefs: from Evangelical to agnostic, then to atheist, then a period of dabbling in Eastern religions, to Pentecostal, then to Presbyterian/Calvinist, and now, well, to where I am today let’s just say.
Once you think you have grasped a firm understanding of God, you come across something that catches you off-guard and makes you re-evaluate everything you’ve believed in. As St. Augustine once said, “God is not what you imagine or what you think you understand. If you understand, you have failed.“
Over the recent years, as I have delved a bit more into the scientific underpinnings of God and theology, as well as my ruminations of the Bible, I’ve adopted more of a “non-interventionist” viewpoint of God.
What is God Like? Does God Change? Is Everything Predetermined/Predestined by God? Has God Settled the Future? – Greg Boyd
Does God change?
Does God know the future?
In most churches today, if you would answer in the affirmative to the first question and negative to the second, you’d likely be branded a heretic or “liberal”. Many people seem to be so set in his or her ways that they won’t even carefully consider a different opinion or viewpoint about God or other theological matters. But it makes sense – for many, his or her view of God that they’ve grown up with or have adopted over the years, they’ve formed a close, emotional (not just psychological or spiritual) bond to it that’s hard to let go.
The very notion of entertaining the thought of God NOT knowing the future or that he can experience new things, or that he is NOT in absolute, complete control of everything (his omniscience, omnipotence, etc.) can be quite (emotionally) unsettling to even consider. (As a criticism of open theism, it may seem to anthropomorphize God a bit too much.)
Much of theology these days (and same goes to a vast majority of the view of God that is communicated through pulpits every week on any given Sunday) seem to be stuck in medieval or Reformation times, and seem to be unwilling to budge. As you know, much of history, science, technology, etc. has changed and progressed since that time, and the Church has had a hard time (or a very stubborn reluctance in) catching up to the rapid changes that are happening in our modern world, so it faces a crisis of remaining relevant to future generations if the Church continues on this trend I believe.
Perhaps our theology and understanding of God need to be updated.
Interesting viewpoints on God’s nature and action according to open theism.
From the website:
Does God know all future events? Only if the future is in some real sense already determined. God, to be God, must know every true proposition, including all about the future. But if the future is truly ‘open’, not even God could know the future because there are no true facts about the future to know. Why is this disturbing?
Has God Settled the Future? – Greg Boyd
Gregory A. Boyd’s profile and an interesting series on God and theology below his profile.
UPDATE – Chapter 20: Part II- Evangelical Christianity in America during the Revolutionary War and the Moravian Church
“George Washington’s Ascension to Heaven” – “[T]he present-day American religious right, anxious to appropriate the Revolution for their own version of modern American patriotism, have sought comfort in the ultimate Founding Father, George Washington, but here too there is much to doubt… In the nineteenth century, patriotic and pious artists often spiced up Washington’s deathbed with religion, giving him on occasion an almost Christ-like ascension into Heaven accompanied by a heavenly choir, but the reality of the scene in 1799 did not include any prayers or the presence of Christian clergy.” – Diarmaid MacCulloch, loc. 14806 – 14809
Here’s two essays for the conclusion of our study of Chapter 20 on evangelical Christianity in America during the Revolutionary War and the Moravian Church.
In the upcoming couple of weeks we will be delving into the Enlightenment period.
Chapter 20: Part II – Pietism, Moravians, Methodists, The Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards, African-American Spirituality, and the Founding Fathers
Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening
We will be concluding Chapter 20 this Sunday.
For this Sunday, please write on one of these topics:
- Discuss the origins and goals of Pietism. Why was it formed? What were their grievances against conservative (‘Orthodox’) Lutheran civil authority and clergy? What influence did Lutheran pastor August Hermann Francke have with the Pietist movement? How did this movement affect the Great Awakening in America?
- How did the Moravian Church come about? What was unique about their beliefs? Discuss the impact Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf had upon the Moravians.
- Discuss John Wesley and how the Methodist Church came about. What was Wesley’s greatest impact to Evangelical Christianity that still resonates into the modern era?
- Discuss the Scotish-Irish impact upon Evangelical Christianity and their outside gatherings to hold ‘revivals‘. How did their churches flourish across America, especially the Middle colonies in America?
- What were Jonathan Edwards contributions to the Great Awakenings in America? Discuss how his eschatology of ‘postmillennialism‘ shaped part of American identity during this time. In fact, what was the overall impact of the Great Awakenings upon American religion? How did worship change as a result of it?
- Why was the Great Awakenings such a great success among the African-American slave population? What was it about the evangelical message or theology that attracted them to convert? What was the reaction of the white Evangelical population to their presence?
- What were the reactions of American Evangelical denominations toward the American Revolutionary War (i.e., Baptists, Quakers, Methodists, Anglican, etc.)? After reading about MacCulloch’s viewpoint of the spirituality of the Founding Fathers, would you consider America to be founded upon Christian principles? Why or why not? How did the shaping of the Constitution by the Founding Fathers and the revolutionary elite impact the way religion was practiced in America?
Please submit by tomorrow, Saturday, July 26.
“Imagining Barth and Nietzsche in Conversation” by Daniel Migliore and the Third Ed. of “Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900), German philosopher
Karl Barth (1886 – 1968), German theologian
Just as Project Augustine celebrates its two-year anniversary this month, Eerdmans Publishing will have the 3rd Edition of Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology out next month.
Project Augustine started off with going through all of the 2nd Edition of Daniel Migliore’s Faith Seeking Understanding which you will find here in July of 2012.
According to his article, Mr. Migliore will include a brand new section of an imaginary conversation between German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and German theologian Karl Barth.
From the article:
In my dialogue I try to avoid giving all the good lines to one of the speakers and reducing the other to a mere foil. My reason for doing so is that Nietzsche’s critique, even if dated, is in some respects devastating, and if I understand Barth’s way of doing theology aright, his response to the atheist challenge is not to try to defeat it by a clever apologetic strategy but instead simply to present as clearly as he can the Christian understanding of God centered in the person and work of Jesus Christ as attested in Scripture.
Our group took great joy going over Prof. Migliore’s book and we look forward to the new edition coming out next month.
Daniel L. Migliore is Charles Hodge Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary
UPDATE: Chapter 20 Protestant Awakenings (1600 – 1800) – Part I: Protestants and American Colonization & The Fight for Protestant Survival (1600 – 1800)
William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, (1644 – 1718)
We begin with the British colonization of eastern North America and the impact Protestantism had there.
Here are our essays concerning slavery, the Quakers, William Penn, and John Locke.
Also, Michael placed a late submission for Chapter 19 concerning the influence of pagan practices inherited from the Roman Empire into Christian traditions we often take for granted. Many Christians are quick to dismiss the often categorized “pagan” aspects of other religious traditions such as voodoo, without realizing the blatant paganism inherent within Christian practices itself. Before we quickly judge others, it’s best to know our history and where our beliefs and traditions originated from.
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