This essay examines the complex relationship between Enlightenment thought and Christian orthodoxy in early modern Europe. Rather than treating the Enlightenment as a straightforward secularizing force, the paper argues that Enlightenment reason reshaped and sometimes reinforced religious belief, giving rise to new forms of orthodoxy alongside new forms of liberalism. The essay traces how the Reformation and Counter-Reformation embodied this tension, how figures such as Spinoza represented a radical minority strain, and how fundamentalism emerged as an internal response to Enlightenment challenges. It concludes that the struggle between reason and orthodoxy continues into the modern and postmodern eras.
The Enlightenment worldview is the root of the "liberal social order," predicated on the belief in "the natural unfolding of human progress" (Kagan, 2012). Preceded by a Church-dominated orthodoxy, the Enlightenment directly threatened the political power of the Church — a principal cause of rising fundamentalism in the defense of that orthodoxy. However, the relationship between religion and the Enlightenment was not one of direct contract and opposition, creating two simple binaries in the European consciousness. In fact, "recent studies of the Enlightenment suggest that its relation to religion is far more complex than a simple process of increasing secularization" (The German History Society, 2007, p. 422).
One example of how the Enlightenment ironically bolstered, or at least reshaped, orthodoxy was via the accessibility of the Bible facilitated by the Gutenberg printing press. Making the Bible available in common English and German — readable by a substantial portion of the populace outside the province of the clergy — stripped the mystique from scripture and permitted a "dogma-free Christianity," if such a thing were possible (The German History Society, 2007, p. 422). Therefore, the Enlightenment emphasis on Reason as a mode of inquiry and critical thought initially presented challenges to orthodoxy, but it did far from erase the religious impetus in the European spirit. Instead, it allowed a curious blend of liberalism and orthodoxy to develop.
Conservative thinkers have posited, as Henrie (2002) points out, that "Enlightenment liberalism was a project that set out to transform the world in a quite partisan way" (p. 27). This narrow view is unsubstantiated and far too simplistic. The Enlightenment did not set forth to wage a "multi-generational" battle against its "enemy," the Catholic Church, and "the social world that Christianity had brought into being in Europe" (Henrie, 2002, p. 27). There was, however, a rise in "bourgeoisie" culture that transposed itself upon "the classical and Christian virtues" (Henrie, 2002, p. 27).
Questioning the sovereignty or metaphysical existence of God was a project reserved for future generations — indeed, centuries later in the modern era. Enlightenment writings, theories, and philosophies do not reject God so much as they reject Church orthodoxy. God fit firmly within a pattern of Enlightenment thought that welcomed the coexistence of theism and Reason. Kant's Critique of Pure Reason embodies the fusion of Enlightenment analytical thinking with orthodoxy.
It must be acknowledged that during the Enlightenment the seeds of critical inquiry into the potential non-existence of God did emerge. The German History Society (2007) presents the most "radical" form of Enlightenment thinking under the rubric of philosopher Spinoza, who was a "rationalist, atheist, and libertarian, and anticipated the dominant liberal values of the present day" (p. 422). This was not, however, the dominant strain of thought during the Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment also had a diverse and multifaceted impact on European thought because of geographic and cultural differences. Those differences related to the perception of the Church and its authority, as well as to the perception of Reason and political empowerment. Thus, the Enlightenment took shape differently in Italy, Austria, Germany, and England (The German History Society, 2007).
Enlightenment thought infused reason into orthodoxy, enabling a transformation of the Church and its role in society. The "boundaries of conservative certainty and doubt" were to be found simultaneously in the Church and in Reason, even though those were not shared boundaries (Henrie, 2002, p. 28). The dimensions of doubt were also applied to multiple domains: politics, social justice, and morality.
"Doubt and reason applied across politics and morality"
"Fundamentalism emerged to defend Church authority"
"Luther and the birth of Protestant and Catholic orthodoxies"
Avoiding the deeper existential questions during the Enlightenment only caused those questions to resurface later during the modern era, when it became far more likely and possible to reject Christianity entirely in an embrace of pure reason and science. The same cycle that took place during the Enlightenment would characterize global struggles between Reason and orthodoxy during the modern and postmodern eras. Existentialism, atheism, and scientific inquiry presented greater challenges to Church authority than Enlightenment thinkers ever did, leading to the resurgence of a backwards-viewing fundamentalism and orthodoxy in both the Catholic and Protestant domains. The struggle to dominate human ontology is an ongoing one, as is the struggle to dominate human political, economic, and social spheres.
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