The Eighteenth Century – The Religion of Reason, The Religion of Feeling

1. The Eighteenth Century – The Religion of Reason, The Religion of Feeling Placher, Ch 15: “Reason & Enthusiasm” Immanuel Kant John Wesley John Locke Philip Spener

2. Outline of class session I. Background considerations: actions & reactions II. The “Religion of Reason” • Natural Religion (vs. revealed religion) • The Enlightenment & Christian Thought • Locke & Deism • Voltaire’s grumblings…. III. The “Religion of Feeling” A. Period of religious revival • Emergence of Pietism in Germany • Great Awakening in the United States B. John Wesley and the emergence of Methodism III. Last words by Lessing…… followed by – a hymn.

3. I. Background considerations • Shift in emphasis: from God-centered to human-centered Example: Pope’s poem, An Essay on Man, 1733. • Placher cites five factors (rf p. 238): • “Wars of religion” in Europe: is it worth it? • Religious division: diversity and proximity: could my religion be the only true one? • New philosophical attitude: question everything! • Scientific progress (vs. theology) : now here’s real progress! • States, in centralizing their power, worked towards bring the church under control: who has authority?

4. Man: the riddle of the world. “Know then thyself, presume not God to scan, The proper study of mankind is Man. Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, A being darkly wise and rudely great: With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side, With too much weakness for the Stoic’s pride, He hangs between, in doubt to act or rest; In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast; In doubt his mind or body to prefer; Born to die, and reas’ning but to err;… Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl’d; The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!” - Alexander Pope, “An Essay on Man” (1733). Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

5. II. The Religion of Reason • Emphasis on natural religion – the basic truths about the existence of God and human morality known to good people in all societies. Can be known through reason. • Vs. revealed religion – the particular historical claims and doctrines of a particular religion (like Christianity). Known through the authority of scripture or the church. (Rf Placher 240).

6. Matthew Tindal (c.1657-1733) "By Natural Religion, I understand the Belief of the Existence of a God, and the Sense and Practice of those Duties which result from the Knowledge we, by our Reason, have of him and his Perfections; and of ourselves, and our own Imperfections; and of the relation we stand in to him and our Fellow-Creatures; so that the Religion of Nature takes in every thing that is founded on the Reason and Nature of things…. Our Reason, which gives us a Demonstration of the divine Perfections, affords us the same concerning the Nature of those duties God requires; not only in relation to himself, but to ourselves and one another; These we can't but see, if we look into ourselves, consider our own Natures, and the Circumstances God has placed us in with relation to our Fellow-Creatures, and what conduces to our mutual Happiness: Our Senses, our Reason, the Experiences of others as well as our own, can’t fail to give us sufficient Information." - Christianity as Old As The Creation (1730) (known as the Deist’s Bible).

7. The Enlightenment & Christianity • The Enlightenment (1690s – 1790s) – a trans-cultural movement (Germany, France, Britain, America): • Belief that unassisted I, not faith or tradition, is the principal guide for human conduct including religion and morality. • Emphasis on religious toleration • Belief in the fundamental goodness of human nature • Belief in progress, especially scientific progress • Emphasis put on the individual and autonomy (self-rule) • Motto of the Enlightenment: “Dare to Know!” (Immanual Kant, 1784).

8. The motto of the Enlightenment: Think! “Enlightenment is man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man’s inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another. Self-incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction from another. Sapere aude! ‘Have courage to use your won reason!’ – that is the motto of enlightenment…. I have placed the main point of enlightenment… chiefly in matters of religion… because religious incompetence is not only the most harmful but also the most degrading of all.” - Kant, “What is Enlightenment?” (1784) Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

9. Kant and the religion of reason • Suspicious of superstition, claims to religious experience; need a religion that is independent of the historical facts about Jesus: need one that is reasonable. • Religion begins with ethics • Moral argument for the existence of God (rf Placher 251). • Ought implies can: God (through reason) would not ask us to do what we are not capable of doing • The only pure moral motivation is duty, not fear of punishment or hope of reward

10. John Locke and Deism • English philosopher – epistemology, education, political philosophy and religion. • Emphasis on religious toleration (Letter on Toleration, 1689); defended Latitudinarianism. • The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695). John Locke (1632-1704)

11. Locke finds a middle position - It is obvious to any one, who reads the New Testa-ment, that the doctrine of redemption, and conse-quently of the Gospel, is founded upon the supposition of Adam's fall. To understand, therefore, what we are restored to by Jesus Christ, we must consider what the Scriptures show we lost by Adam. This I thought worthy of a diligent and unbiased search: since I found the two extremes that men run into on this point, either on the one hand shook the foundations of all religion, or, on the other, made Christianity almost nothing: for while some men would have all Adam's posterity doomed to eternal, infinite punishment, for the transgression of Adam, whom millions had never heard of, and no one had authorised to transact for him, or be his representative; this seemed to others so little consistent with the justice or goodness of the great and infinite God, that they thought there was no redemption necessary, and consequently, that there was none; rather than admit of it upon a supposition so derogatory to the honour and attributes of that infinite Being; and so made Jesus Christ nothing but the restorer and preacher of pure natural religion; thereby doing violence to the whole tenor of the New Testa-ment.

12. And, indeed, both sides will be suspected to have trespassed this way against the written word of God, by any one, who does but take it to be a collection of writings, designed by God, for the instruction of the illiterate bulk of mankind, in the way to salvation; and therefore, generally, and in necessary points, to be understood in the plain direct meaning of the words and phrases: such as they may be supposed to have had in the mouths of the speakers, who used them accord-ing to the language of that time and country wherein they lived… To one that, thus unbiassed, reads the Scriptures, what Adam fell from (is visible), was the state of per-fect obedience, which is called justice in the New Testament; though the word, which in the original sig-nifies justice, be translated righteousness: and by this fall he lost paradise, wherein was tranquillity and the tree of life; i.e. he lost bliss and immortality. - John Locke, The Reasonableness of Christianity.

13. Deism - moving beyond Locke • A total repudiation of revealed religion; religion must be based on religion alone. • God is the creator of the world but after that does not intervene in the operations of the world (the universe is like a machine) • Lord Herbert of Cherbury considered “founder” of Deism (see his principles of natural religion on page 242 of Placher). • Also: Matthew Tindal, William Wollaston, John Toland and Thomas Woolston; also Voltaire and Roussaeu; Thomas Jefferson?

14. Paley’s Watchmaker God: a teleological argument for the existence of God Finding a stone vs. finding a watch: where did it come from? “The mechanism being observed… the inference we think is inevitable, that the watch must have had a maker – that there must have existed, at some time and at some place or other, artificer or artificers who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer, who completely comprehended its construction and designed its use….

15. There cannot be design without a designer… Arrangement, disposition of parts, subserviency of means to an end, relation of instruments to a use imply the presence of intelligence and mind.” - William Paley, Natural Theology (1802). Andrew Reed, the young watchmaker; Wood engraving, published in Harper's Weekly, October 30, 1869.  

16. Voltaire aka Francois-Marie Arouet (1694-1778)Entries from Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary: “THE institution of religion exists only to keep mankind in order, and to make men merit the goodness of God by their virtue. Everything in a religion which does not tend towards this goal must be considered foreign or dangerous. Instruction, exhortation, menaces of pains to come, promises of immortal beatitude, prayers, counsels, spiritual help are the only means ecclesiastics may use to try to make men virtuous here below, and happy for eternity. All other means are repugnant to the liberty of the reason, to the nature of the soul, to the inalterable rights of the conscience, to the essence of religion and of the ecclesiastical ministry, to all the rights of the sovereign. Virtue supposes liberty, as the carrying of a burden supposes active force. Under coercion no virtue, and without virtue no religion. Make a slave of me, I shall be no better for it.” - Voltaire, The Philosophical Dictionary. Entry on The Ecclesiastical Ministry.

17. Voltaire on “Sect” EVERY sect, in whatever sphere, is the rallying-point of doubt and error. Scotist, Thomist, Realist, Nominalist, Papist, Calvinist, Molinist, Jansenist, are only pseudonyms. There are no sects in geometry; one does not speak of a Euclidian, an Archimedean. When the truth is evident, it is impossible for parties and factions to arise. Never has there been a dispute as to whether there is daylight at noon…. You are Mohammedan, therefore there are people who are not, therefore you might well be wrong. What would be the true religion if Christianity did not exist? the religion in which there were no sects; the religion in which all minds were necessarily in agreement. Well, to what dogma do all minds agree? to the worship of a God and to integrity. All the philosophers of the world who have had a religion have said in all time--" There is a God, and one must be just." There, then, is the universal religion established in all time and throughout mankind. The point in which they all agree is therefore true, and the systems through which they differ are therefore false. • Voltaire, The Philosophical Dictionary. Entry on “Sect”.

18. Voltaire on the importance of religious tolerance “WHAT is tolerance? it is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly--that is the first law of nature. It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of the same opinion, is a monster. That admits of no difficulty. But the government! but the magistrates! but the princes! how do they treat those who have another worship than theirs? If they are powerful strangers, it is certain that a prince will make an alliance with them. Franois I., very Christian, will unite with Mussulmans against Charles V., very Catholic. Francois I. will give money to the Lutherans of Germany to support them in their revolt against the emperor; but, in accordance with custom, he will start by having Lutherans burned at home. For political reasons he pays them in Saxony; for political reasons he burns them in Paris. But what will happen? Persecutions make proselytes? Soon France will be full of new Protestants. At first they will let themselves be hanged, later they in their turn will hang. There will be civil wars, then will come the St. Bartholomew; and this corner of the world will be worse than all that the ancients and moderns have ever told of hell.” - Voltaire, The Philosophical Dictionary.

19. II. The Religion of Feeling A. Period of religious revival • Emergence of Pietism in Germany • Great Awakening in the United States B. John Wesley and the emergence of Methodism

20. Pietism • Movement, originally with Lutheran tradition in Germany led by Spener and Francke • Revolt against the dogmatic emphases in Lutheran theology and practice; also reaction to excessive intellectualism • Emphasized interiority and practical concerns • Focus on Bible study and spiritual growth • Dictionary of Religion and Philosophy • Also Placher 245.

21. Philip Jacob Spener (1635-1705) Importance of reading the Bible: “Thought should be given to the more extensive use of the Word of God among us. We know that by nature we have no good in us. If there is to be any good in us, it must be brought about by God. To this end the Word of God is the powerful means, since faith must be rekindled through the gospel, and the law provides the rules for good works and many wonderful impulses to attain them. The more at home the Word of God is among us, the more we shall bring about faith and its fruits. It may appear that the Word of God has sufficiently free course among us inasmuch as at various places (as in this city [Frankfurt am Main]) there is daily or frequent preaching from the pulpit. When we reflect further on the matter, however, we shall find that with respect to this first proposal, more is needed. I do not at all disapprove of the preaching of sermons in which a Christian congregation is instructed by the reading and exposition of a certain text, for I myself do this. But I find that this is not enough… (continued)

22. Spener continued In the first place, we know that "all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). Accordingly all Scripture, without exception, should be known by the congregation if we are all to receive the necessary benefit. If we put together all the passages of the Bible which in the course of many years are read to a congregation in one place, they will comprise only very small part of the Scriptures which have been given to us. The remainder is not heard by the congregation at all, or is heard only insofar as one or another verse is quoted or alluded to in sermons, without, however, offering any understanding of the entire context, which is nevertheless of the greatest importance. In the second place, the people have little opportunity to grasp the meaning of the Scripture except on the basis of those passages which may have been expounded to them, and even less do they have opportunity to become as practiced in them as edification requires. Meanwhile, although solitary reading of the Bible at home is in itself a splendid and praiseworthy thing, it does not accomplish enough for most people. (continued)

23. Spener continued It should therefore be considered whether the church would not be well advised to introduce the people to Scripture in still other ways than through the customary sermons on the appointed lessons. This might be done, first of all, by diligent reading of the Holy Scriptures, especially of the New Testament. It would not be difficult for every housefather to keep a Bible or at least a New Testament handy and read from it every day or, if they cannot read to have somebody else read. Then a second thing would be desirable in order to encourage people to read privately, namely, that where the practice can be introduced the books of the Bible be read one after another, at specified times in the public service, without further comment (unless one wished to add brief summaries). This would be intended for the edification of all, but especially of those that cannot read at all, or cannot read easily or well or of those who do not own a copy of the Bible. -From the Pia Desidera:

24. The Great Awakening in the U.S. • Trans-colonial movement, 1730s-1770s • New form of preaching: passionate! • Cross-denominational movement • Role of the itinerant minister • The psychology of conversion • Schismatic effect on some churches

25. George Whitefield (1714-1770) • English (Anglican) minister who had great success in America • As a student at Oxford was caught up in the Wesleyan (Methodist) movement • Itinerant minister in the U.S.; converted thousands.

26. Hearing Whitefield…. “Now it pleased God to send Mr. Whitefield into this land; and my hearing of his preaching at Philadelphia, like one of the Old apostles, and many thousands flocking to hear him preach the Gospel; and great numbers were converted to Christ; I felt the Spirit of God drawing me by conviction; I longed to see and hear him, and wished he would come this way.. [Then I saw Mr. Whitefield]: he Lookt [sic] almost angelical; a young, Slim, slender, youth before some thousands of people with a bold undaunted Countenance, and my hearing how God was with him every where as he came along it Solemnized my mind; and put me into a trembling fear before he began to preach; for he looked as if he was Cloathed with authority from the Great God;.. And my hearing him preach, gave me a heart wound; By Gods blessing: my old Foundation was broken up, and I saw that my righteousness would not save me; then I was convinced of the doctrine of Election: and went right to quarreling with God about it; because that all I could do would not save me; and he had decreed from Eternity who should be saved and who not.” • From Nathan Cole’s account of Thursday, October 23, 1740. Even Benjamin Franklin was moved!

27. John Wesley: a heart strangely warmed • John Wesley (1703-1791) – founder of the Methodists. • Traveled from England to the state of Georgia in the U.S. in 1735 • Felt that the Church of England lacked vitality • Emphasis on Christian perfection (246) • Reported to have rode 8,000 miles a year on horseback, preaching • At the time of his death, there were 300 Methodist preachers in England, 200 in the U.S.

28. John WesleyScripture as the Way to Salvation (1765) "Ye are saved through faith." Ephesians 2:8 1. Nothing can be more intricate, complex, and hard to be understood, than religion, as it has been often described. And this is not only true concerning the religion of the Heathens, even many of the wisest of them, but concerning the religion of those also who were, in some sense, Christians; yea, and men of great name in the Christian world; men who seemed to be pillars thereof. Yet how easy to be understood, how plain and simple a thing, is the genuine religion of Jesus Christ; provided only that we take it in its native form, just as it is described in the oracles of God! It is exactly suited, by the wise Creator and Governor of the world, to the weak understanding and narrow capacity of man in his present state. How observable is this, both with regard to the end it proposes, and the means to attain that end! The end is, in one word, salvation; the means to attain it, faith. 2. It is easily discerned, that these two little words, I mean faith and salvation, include the substance of all the Bible, the marrow, as it were, of the whole Scripture. So much the more should we take all possible care to avoid all mistake concerning them, and to form a true and accurate judgement concerning both the one and the other.

29. Wesley on justification and sanctification “Justification is another word for pardon. It is the forgiveness of all our sins; and, what is necessarily implied therein, our acceptance with God. The price whereby this hath been procured for us (commonly termed "the meritorious cause of our justification"), is the blood and righteousness of Christ; or, to express it a little more clearly, all that Christ hath done and suffered for us, till He "poured out His soul for the transgressors." The immediate effects of justification are, the peace of God, a "peace that passeth all understanding," and a "rejoicing in hope of the glory of God" "with joy unspeakable and full of glory." And at the same time that we are justified, yea, in that very moment, sanctification begins. In that instant we are born again, born from above, born of the Spirit: there is a real as well as a relative change. We are inwardly renewed by the power of God. We feel "the love of God shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us"; producing love to all mankind, and more especially to the children of God; expelling the love of the world, the love of pleasure, of ease, of honour, of money, together with pride, anger, self-will, and every other evil temper; in a word, changing the earthly, sensual, devilish mind, into "the mind which was in Christ Jesus." Source: “The Scripture Way of Salvation.”

30. Wesley’s response to predestination Do election and reprobation agree with the truth and sincerity of God? But do they not agree least of all with the scriptural account of his love and goodness: that attribute which God peculiarly claims wherein he glories above all the rest? It is not written, "God is justice," or "God is truth" (although he is just and true in all his ways). But it is written, "God is love" [1 Jn. 4:8] (love in the abstract, without bounds), and "there is no end of his goodness" [cf. Ps. 52:1]. His love extends even to those who neither love nor fear him. He is good, even to the evil and the unthankful; yea, without any exception or limitation, to all the children of men. For "the Lord is loving" (or good) "unto every man, and his mercy is over all his works" [Ps. 145:9, B.C.P.]. But how is God good or loving to a "reprobate," or one that is not "elected" You may choose either term, for if none but the unconditionally elect are saved, it comes precisely to the same thing. You cannot say, he is an object of the love or goodness of God, with regard to his external state, which he created (says Mr. Calvin plainly and fairly).. "to live a reproach and die everlastingly.” Surely, no one can dream that the goodness of God is at all concerned with this man's eternal state. "However, God is good to him in this world." What? When by reason of God's unchangeable decree, it had been good for this man never to have been born, when his very birth was a curse, not a blessing? "Well, but he now enjoys many of the gifts of God, both gifts of nature and of providence. He has food and raiment, and comforts of various kinds. And are not all these great blessings?" No, not to him. At the price he is to pay for them, every one of these also is a curse. Every one of these comforts is, by an eternal decree, to cost him a thousand pangs in hell. For every moment's pleasure which he now enjoys, he is to suffer the torment of more than a thousand years; for the smoke of that pit which is preparing for him ascendeth up for ever and ever. God knew this would be the fruit of whatever he should enjoy, before the vapour of life fled away…. Wesley, “Predestination Calmly Considered” (1773).

31. Wesley’s response to predestination II LIII. We come next to his justice. Now, if man be capable of choosing good or evil, then is he a proper object of the justice of God, acquitting or condemning, rewarding or punishing. But otherwise he is not. A mere machine is not capable of being either acquitted or condemned. Justice cannot punish a stone for falling to the ground; nor (on your scheme) a man for falling into sin. For he can no more help it than the stone, if he be (in your sense) "foreordained to this condemnation." Why does this man sin? "He cannot cease from sin." Why can't he cease from sin? "Because he has no saving grace." Why has he no saving grace? "Because God, of his own good pleasure, hath eternally decreed not to give it him." Is he then under an unavoidable necessity of sinning? "Yes, as much as a stone is of falling. He never had any more power to cease from evil than a stone has to hang in the air." And shall this man, for not doing what he never could do, and for doing what he never could avoid, be sentenced to depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the evil and his angels [cf. Mt. 25:41]? "Yes, because it is the sovereign will of God." Then you have either found a new God, or made one! This is not the God of the Christians. Our God is just all his ways; he repeath not where he hath not strewed. He requireth only according to what he hath given; and where he hath given little, little is required. Source: “Predestination Calmly Considered.”

32. Gotthold Lessing gets the last word “The worth of a man does not consist in the truth he possesses, or thinks he possesses, but in the pains he has taken to attain that truth…. If God held all truth in his right hand and in his left the everlasting striving after truth… and said to me, ‘Choose.,’ with humility I would pick on the left hand and say, ‘Father grant me that. Absolute truth is for thee alone.’” - Lessing. Quoted by Placher, 250.

33. Hymn: “Thou hidden God of love.” http://www.hymnsite.com/lection/cpe16.htm