Enlightenment Attitudes to Religion

A discussion of the Enlightenment's attitudes towards religion is necessarily a complex one and cannot be answered without reference to historical influences on the social situation in Europe, and contemporary political and scientific developments. Absolute rejection of the existence of a God on the part of Enlightenment intellectuals was rare, while the concept of man as innately reasonable lead to a rethinking of established religious doctrine and the role of the Church within society. Many …

…Marko Pavlyshyn; 5 L1 & L2 Natalie Doyle. Outram, D. The Enlightenment. Chapter 3: The rise of modern paganism? Religion and the Enlightenment. Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, Oakleigh, Melbourne, Australia 1995. Porter, R. The Enlightenment 2nd ed. Chapter 4: Reforming Religion by Reason. Palgrave, Basingstoke, Hampshire UK 2001. Wilson, E. J. The Enlightenment. Reproduced from Encyclopaedia of the Enlightenment. New York: Facts on File, 1996. EUR1100 European Culture and Ideas: Modernity and Enlightenment Subject Handbook S1 2003. ENDNOTES