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A man who does not think for himself does not think at all. --Oscar Wilde.

A man who does not think for himself does not think at all. --Oscar Wilde. I may disapprove of what you say, but I will die for your right to say it. --Francois-Marie Voltaire. Enlightenment and the making of Modernity. Reformation: two crises Forerunner of Enlightenment: Rene Descartes

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A man who does not think for himself does not think at all. --Oscar Wilde.

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  1. A man who does not think for himself does not think at all. --Oscar Wilde. I may disapprove of what you say, but I will die for your right to say it. --Francois-Marie Voltaire.

  2. Enlightenment and the making of Modernity Reformation: two crises Forerunner of Enlightenment: Rene Descartes Select figures of the Enlightenment: Voltaire, Hume & Kant Major characteristics of the Enlightenment Modernity’s heroes: Feuerbach, Freud, Darwin How can Christian theism be defended today?

  3. Reformation: two crises 1. Crisis of the certainty of salvation • Lifted up the notion of individual faith & conscience 2. Crisis of the authority of the Church • Created the possibility for social change • Caused religious wars in Europe • Relationship between faith & reason reconsidered.

  4. Rene Descartes (1596-1650) • French philosopher, father of rationalism • Radical skepticism • Cogito ergo sum • Searched for one method that will yield certain knowledge • Autonomous self as the source of certain knowledge • Major writings: Discourse on Method (1637) & Meditations (1647)

  5. Voltaire (1694-1778): Christianity is immoral • French philosopher • Criticized Christianity for superstition, ignorance, false piety & hypocrisy • Criticized religious intolerance • Advocated the freedom of speech.

  6. Notre Dame became a ‘Temple of Reason’

  7. David Hume (1711-1776): Christianity is irrational • Scottish philosopher, father of agnosticism • Argued against: • Miracles • Proofs of God’s existence • Providence.

  8. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): morality independent from religion • German philosopher, father of objective idealism • All empirical reality is mind-constructed • Wrote Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone • Reduced Christianity to ethics of duty.

  9. Major characteristics of the Enlightenment • ‘Age of Reason’ • Autonomous self v. traditional beliefs • Numerous challenges to traditional Christianity • Moral criticism • Criticism of Christianity’s intellectual core • Attempts to fit Christianity into emerging patterns of rationality • Not uniformly anti-religious.

  10. Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872):An alternative theory of religion • German philosopher • Reduced theology to anthropology: claimed that God was a projection of human ideal.

  11. Sigmund Freud (1856-1936): An alternative theory of human nature • Father of psychoanalysis • Religion is an illusion • God is an expression of the fundamental human need for care and protection.

  12. Charles Darwin (1809-1882): An alternative theory of human origins • British naturalist • Major work: The Origin of Species (1859) • Non-theistic evolution: random mutation of genes + natural selection (i.e., death) • Denied intelligent design.

  13. Karl Marx (1818-1883): An alternative interpretation of history • German political philosopher • Major writing: The Capital • Interpreted human history as the struggle of classes • Religion is the ‘opium for the people.’

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