Enlightenment

Rise of Liberalism

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Another similar movement arose in the nineteenth century that attempted to knock down the walls of traditional Christianity. Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) tried to make the Christian faith acceptable to those who had been influenced by Enlightenment thinking. For this, he is considered the father of “Liberal” theology, so-called because he believed that the individual should be able to determine truth without the interference of any outside authority. Heavily influenced by German Romanticism, his writings paved the way for Enlightenment thinking to enter the Church. Among his teachings was the idea that each person has a God-consciousness that gives them a sense that something exists beyond the self upon which each person is fully dependent. He held that Jesus was not God, he was simply a person who had fully achieved God-consciousness.

Impact: Liberal theology continues to have a great influence on the Christian church.

Enlightenment, The

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Increasingly in the late seventeenth century and well into the eighteenth freedom of thought was producing skepticism both inside and outside of the churches. Most of the political leaders were distinctly irreligious. Many in the clergy were content to argue for a belief in God and the reasonableness of virtue without attempting to vindicate Christianity as a revealed religion. Known as the Enlightenment, this era was a time of new, secular philosophies. Medieval Schoolmen had tried to prove their faith by their reason but had failed and had fallen back on their traditional beliefs. The humanists of the Renaissance put a new valuation on intellectual powers but most stopped short of dismissing religion. By the seventeenth century, however, faith was being tossed out in favor of human reason. Humanistic philosophers emphasized a person’s ability to win salvation without supernatural aid. They did not share the traditional Protestant opinion of human depravity and helplessness, nor did they recognize the need for atonement. They did not think of Christ as divine. Interest in the scientific investigation was also spreading and philosophers were ready to argue for an inductive rather than a deductive method of reasoning. The new sciences with their reliance upon natural law were contrary to prevailing ideas in religion.

Impact: With philosophy and science both stressing humanity’s power to discover the truth by reason alone, it was easy to think of God as expressed in nature rather than in revelation. At best He was a creator with no active interest in His creation. Deism came to dominate the religious landscape in many affluent, intellectual, and legislative circles.