Enlightenment

Enlightenment

Rationality

• "It may be that universal history is the history of the different intonations given a handful of metaphors." (*)
• Arguments for God: a priori and empirical
• Calvin's systematic development of the faith position sovereignty of God
• Quakers and Nonconformists: where is highest authority placed?
• Descartes: from scientific method to rational conclusions

(*) Pascal's Sphere where he traces a metaphor about God and the cosmos from the 6th c. BCE up to the 16th CE, all in 3 pages

Earthquakes: San Francisco

1906

Lisbon 1755

Lisbon Theodicy

Voltaire

• a tale of 2 earthquakes
• he found the evidence for his belief in nature rather than in the Bible; he doubted a good bit of traditional doctrine—and he didn't treat religion all that seriously.
• Revivals but at heart a move from God to human beings

Do we explain these by reference to God? No? We are inheritors of Enlightenment.

• p. 203 it is the shifting of place re. God and world –
• what do we pay attention to? What determines our interpretive framework?

Enlightenment from …

God-centered to Human-centered

1. 5 catalysts for change (204)
2. wars of religion
3. Europe divided
4. philosophical attitudes encouraged questioning tradition
5. science seemed to being moving from one accomplishment to another …;
6. nationalism taking root, centralizing power
7. at the very time of success in discovery and technology, reason seemed to reach its end of life