« Back | Home | Next »

Enlightenment

Peter Hanns Reill, ed., and Ellen Judy Wilson, principal author, Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment (revised edition; New York: Facts on File, 2004), 670pp.

Contemporary critics of modernity, including Christian ones, often focus their attacks on �The Enlightenment,�Ethe intellectual and cultural movement that endured through the �long eighteenth century�Ebetween Louis XIV and Napoleon. Castigated by its critics for its rationalism and rigorous logic-chopping, �The Enlightenment�Eis seen as the source for many of the evils of contemporary social, intellectual, and political life. The authors of this volume offer a more nuanced picture of the movement. It is a mistake, for example, to believe that there is only one Enlightenment; Descartes�Egeometric rationalism, for example, came under severe criticism, and for many Enlightened thinkers �feeling and sensation replaced reason as the grounds upon which all human understanding and activity were founded.�EFar from being committed to abstract reason and speculation, �one basic strain�Erecurs in nearly every Enlightenment writer, �namely a great disdain for abstract answers based on empty logic.�EThe Enlightenment was not so much an age of rationalism as an age of criticism, more an age of autonomy than an age of system-building. As Kant defined it, �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.�EThe Encyclopedia is clearly written, well-indexed, thoroughly cross-referenced, and gives a surprising amount of attention to theological writers and subjects (articles, for example, on Anglicanism, Calvinism, Lutheranism, Jansenism, the Jesuits, Reimarus, Vico, Hamann, and Reimarus). It provides an excellent overview of the current state of research on this highly important turning point in Western history.

Solomon Among the Postmoderns

The Baptized Body

1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary

The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter

A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons

Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature

Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen

The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism

A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel

Against Christianity

From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution

Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy

Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper

A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament

Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature

Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays

Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life

The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church