However, looking closely at the versions of the Enlightenment that D'Alembert and Kant defended may help us to find their common denominator. STUDY. The problem with this approach is that it is still unclear that such a theory has ever existed. 44 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Du contrat social (Amsterdam, 1762) ch. The alleged lack of originality and philosophical depth of works such as the Traité sur la tolérance is, in fact, symptomatic of this eighteenth-century cultural change. The Church continued to insist that it was the only, The Enlightenment was a wide-spread movement in philosophical thinking within Europe throughout the 1700s. The Third Estate made up 98 percent of France's population and paid all the taxes, yet had no voice in government aside from the Convocation of the Estates-General, in which they could be -- and were -- outvoted by the representatives of the First and Second Estates, who had the same number of votes as t… Sometimes religious pluralism, understood as respect for and even approval of all forms of religion, is considered a mark of the modern (that is to say Enlightenment) mode of toleration. The Papal States strenuously rejected any movement towards religious toleration, and Pope Pius VI publicly condemned one bishop’s pastoral letter advocating toleration in 1787. Hence, a sincere conscience became much more central to religion than a correct one. 42 Jonathan Israel, Radical Enlightenment, 265–70. 56 José Luis Colomer, ‘Política, conciencia y tolerancia religiosa. Christian notions highly influenced Enlightenment rhetoric on toleration. Many countries in past centuries allowed other religions but only in privacy. Jews and Muslims were considered religious outsiders in early modern Europe. This article is an introduction to a special issue on ‘Religious Toleration in the Age of Enlightenment’. Even those who believed all religions to be part of the same truth or who searched for a minimal religion that could embrace many different beliefs tended to loathe actual religions for claiming to be the one true religion and for considering their faith incompatible with others. In his opinion, there were only two kinds of Christians, those who ‘arrogate to themselves dominion over the consciences of others’ and those who seek truth for themselves and tolerate the rest.63 He excluded the former from toleration, but trusted that toleration among the latter would lay the foundations ‘of that liberty and peace in which the church of Christ is one day to be established'.64 In Locke's view, toleration was the best way to concord. 20 Pierre Bayle, A Philosophical Commentary (Indianapolis, IN, 2005), part II, ch. : Eighteenth-Century Answers and Twentieth-Century Questions, ed. He regarded them as seditious enthusiasts who, along with other believers in modern revelations, prophecies and miracles, deserved to be punished with death.32 It is true that eighteenth-century mysticism, with its downplaying of theological distinctions, shared some traits with the Enlightenment and that a few relevant figures during that era, such as Joseph Priestley, can be said to combine millenarianism with the language of ‘reasonable religion’.33 However, prophets and their followers are not usually considered part of the Enlightenment. La Francia del edicto de Nantes y el Comentario de Pierre Bayle’, in Pierre Bayle, Comentario filosófico sobre las palabras de Jesucristo “oblígales a entrar” (Madrid, 2006), I-CXXXVII. Deism, freethinking and toleration in Enlightenment England. As Laborie rightly states: ‘Staring at the Enlightenment can be blinding when assessing religious tolerance in the long eighteenth century.’ Too many significant realities of that time are forgotten when one focuses on the Enlightenment, even when defined in the broad terms used above. 81 Paul Heinrich d’Holbach, Éthocratie ou Le government fondé sur la morale (Amsterdam, 1776), ch. In particular, it disputes that these ideas were essentially principled, secular, pluralist and liberal. 9 Robert Darnton, ‘The High Enlightenment and the Low-Life of Literature in Pre-Revolutionary France’, Past and Present, 51 (1971): 81–115. IV, cap. Through these conversations and stories, Voltaire’s Candide shows support for the enlightenment principle of reason, Proving to be the paramount of the conflict between faith and reason, the European Enlightenment of the eighteenth century challenged each of the traditional values of that age. 10 Jonathan Sheehan, ‘Enlightenment, Religion, and the Enigma of Secularization. 93 R. I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in Western Europe 950-1250 (Hoboken, 2007). But it was during the eighteenth century that much of the European intellectual elite accepted the ideal of toleration and began to express it in the most diverse kinds of texts. European rulers such as Catherine II of Russia, Joseph II of Austria and Frederick II of Prussia tried to apply Enlightenment thought on religious and political tolerance, which became known as enlightened absolutism. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. In fact, some early Enlightenment figures perceived Quakers as potentially dangerous because they reject oaths and other political and social conventions.28 However, due to their tolerance and their lack of clergy, the Quakers were soon perceived as ‘the most innocent enthusiasts’.29 Penn himself did much to increase the intellectual prestige of his coreligionists and he was highly admired by some Enlightenment authors.30 He certainly advocated for broader toleration than Locke or Bayle, regardless of his less apparent association with the Enlightenment. Roy S. Porter and Mikuláš Teich (Cambridge, 1981). Herein, I will offer a rather tentative characterization of this complex historical phenomenon, focusing on its relationship to religion. I, ch. 49 Pierre Bayle, A Philosophical Commentary, book II, chs. 33 J. G. A. Pocock, Barbarism and Religion. Overview. 5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG. The Enlightenment involved a series of campaigns against the existence, or at least the supremacy, of ecclesiastical authority, which was precisely the one thing that the Church of Rome was not willing to give up. I. de la Recopilación’, in Espíritu de los mejores diarios literarios que se publican en Europa, 203 (Madrid, 1789), 151–82 (152); Richard Price, A Discourse on the Love of Our Country (London, 1790), 32; John Cartwright, An Appeal, on the Subject of the English Constitution (Boston, 1797), 25. It is often said that, after Locke and Bayle, defences of toleration lost originality.98 I think, however, that the relevance of the Enlightenment for the history of toleration is not so much found in the originality of its ideas, as it is in their increased diffusion. Despite it's title, the core focus is not on European enlightenment society as a whole, but on late seventeenth Century England, the Netherlands and, to a much lesser extent, France. 82 Helga Varden, ‘A Kantian Conception of Free Speech’, in Freedom of Expression in a Diverse World, ed. Ulrich L. Lehner and Michael Printy (Leiden, 2010); Enlightenment and Catholicism in Europe. The Age of Enlightenment was a turning point in European history because it led to the inevitable French Revolution. … 72 Thomas Paine, Rights of Man (London, 1791), 78–9. Enlightenment authors had very different opinions regarding where to draw that line, but most of them shared a certain general idea on why it should be drawn. They could only tolerate religions after decisively transforming them. By way of conclusion, this introductory article suggests that the Enlightenment's main contribution to the history of toleration is found not in the originality or subtlety of its ideas, but rather in the promotion of a new mentality according to which toleration came to be regarded as an essential feature of modern civilization. And the same could be said of Kant's ‘pure rational system of religion’. II, 29. 18 Voltaire, Letters concerning the English Nation (London, 1733), letters VII and XIII, 40–4 and 81–93; Frederick II of Prussia to Voltaire, 10 February 1767, Voltaire's Correspondence (Geneva, 1961), vol. Its initial publication was in Latin, and it was immediately translated into other languages.Locke's work appeared amidst a fear that Catholicism might be taking over England, and responds to the problem of religion and government by proposing religious toleration as the answer. It is commonly referred to as the “Age of Reason” because Europeans began questioning traditional authority and believed that improvements could happen through rational change. Jeffrey D. Burson and Ulrich L. Lehner (Notre Dame, IN, 2014); Ulrich L. Lehner, The Catholic Enlightenment. 84 Voltaire, Letters Concerning the English, letter XIII, 107. 16 Marsilius of Padua, Defensor pacis (Cambridge, 2005); Nathan Tarcov, ‘Machiavelli's Critique of Religion’, Social Research, 81 (New York, 2014), 193–216. 12 J. G. A. Pocock, Barbarism and Religion. Erastianism, civic religion, proscription of atheism, discrimination against Catholics, and the expulsion of Jesuits were all different measures, among many others, that were coherently proposed as means for crushing clerical power and religious enthusiasm, for strengthening civil authority, and for promoting economic, social and intellectual progress. In “A letter concerning Toleration” Locke examines governments and people’s attitudes regarding religious tolerance. Thus he regarded ‘the recrudescence of persecution in the later seventeenth century’ as evidence ‘that practice lagged behind theory’.87 Recently, Benjamin Kaplan has insisted that the principles of toleration that the philosophes defended made little impact on the vast majority of the European population, including eighteenth-century rulers. Hegel argued Enlightenment was inherently a. religious movement. Volume One, 7. Eighteenth-century philosophes already began to place the Enlightenment's beginnings in the latter half of the seventeenth century with thinkers such as John Locke and Pierre Bayle; modern scholars have long maintained the same position.18 This period is regarded as the origin of the Enlightenment for several reasons, among which it is worth highlighting the rise of the ‘republic of letters’, the intensification of the campaign against religious persecution, and the diffusion of new views on human understanding (such as rationalism, empiricism, historical criticism, etc.) Even nonbelievers knew that most of their readers would be more convinced by appealing to the Scriptures than to any other source. 1) Joseph II of Austria. It seems to imply that the Enlightenment is the defining feature of an entire period in European history. Register to receive personalised research and resources by email, Introduction: Religious toleration in the Age of Enlightenment, Institute for Culture and Society (ICS), University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain. 60 Voltaire, Letters concerning the English, letter IV, 29. Toleration definition is - the act or practice of tolerating something. A deist, Frederick prided himself on religious tolerance. Hence, though late, arose the paradoxical principle and salutary practice of toleration.38. Introduction: Religious toleration in th .... : Religious toleration in the Age of Enlightenment Guest Editor: Juan Pablo Domínguez. (1723-1737) [Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the All the Peoples of the World], it is possible to see how a new visual understanding of religion emerged in the course of the eighteenth century and how Enlightenment notions of religious toleration could develop into truly revolutionary laws about freedom of religion. The magistrate, therefore, applied himself directly to the cure of this evil as of every other; and very naturally attempted, by penal statutes, to suppress those separate communities, and punish obstinate innovators. 65 Locke to van Limborch, Selected Correspondence, 10 September 1689, 142. From the perspective of doctrinal minimalism, those who rejected theological concessions and clung to their dogmas, were deemed fanatics and often excluded from toleration. that challenged the authority of Scripture, of theological claims and of religious traditions. But even those like Kant who signalled the benefits of a public discussion about politics, usually denied freedom of seditious speech that could promote resistance to established authority.82 To make clear that Aufklärung was not a danger to princes' authority, Kant noted that philosophers never formed ‘seditious factions’.83 Voltaire, for his part, insisted that philosophers were not a threat to authorities because they ‘will never form a religious sect’ and their writings were ‘not calculated for the vulgar’.84 It is true that, elsewhere, the philosophes showed interest in changing society and creating public opinion, but they were also concerned that a generalization of political freedoms could lead to the triumph of the masses' prejudices over Enlightenment reforms.85. John Christian Laursen and Cary J. Nederman (Philadelphia, 1988), 232–50. For some scholars, the novelty of the Enlightenment theory of toleration is found in this precise distinction. This characterization cannot present the Enlightenment as a coherent set of ideas. 47 John Christian Laursen, ‘Spinoza on Lying for Toleration and His Intolerance of Atheists’, in Paradoxes of Religious Toleration, 39–52. It begins by characterizing the Enlightenment's attitude towards religion as an opposition to bigotry and ecclesiastic authority based on a particular interpretation of the European Wars of Religion. Religious toleration: Voltaire. 98 Perez Zagorin, How the Idea of Religious Toleration Came to the West, 292. 64 Locke to van Limborch, Selected Correspondence, 6 June 1698, 140. History of European Ideas: Vol. The truth is, however, a bit more complex. It is true that, during the Age of Enlightenment, relevant thinkers relied on natural law in search of a common ground for moral civility regardless of the doctrinal disputes that divided Christianity. 70 Simon-Nicolas-Henri Linguet, Le Fanatisme des philosophes (London, 1764). The magnitude of the philosophy movement known as the Enlightenment sent ripples throughout Western society. In three “Letters Concerning Toleration” (1689-92), Locke suggested that governments should respect freedom of religion except when the dissenting belief was a threat to public order. Laborie's take on ‘radical tolerance’ shows how religious doctrines, such as universalism, inspired practices and beliefs of toleration. Counter-Enlightenment writers were not completely wrong when talking about the fanaticism of the philosophes. History of European Ideas: Vol. For both Locke and Bayle, following one's conscience was, above all, a religious duty. Jews and Christians usually, 18th century in which absolute monarchs pursued legal, social, and educational reforms inspired by the Enlightenment" (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica). 83 Immanuel Kant, ‘Perpetual peace’, in Political Writings (Cambridge, 2003), 115. But, at the same time, he insisted that the Quaker faith was completely otherworldly and posed no danger to secular affairs. 40 Diderot, ‘Intoleránce’, Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné (Paris, 1765), vol. Hume expressed a very common Enlightenment view when he considered that Catholicism is reprehensible because, not contented with dividing the sacerdotal from the regal office (which must be prejudicial to any state) it bestows the former on a foreigner, who has always a separate, and may often have an opposite interest to that of the public.23, In Early Modern Europe, the ideal of toleration usually came before that of the supremacy of civil authority.24 Hence, only those Catholics who embraced one form or another of Erastian ecclesiology were able to accept the Enlightenment theories on toleration.25, After Catholicism, Calvinism is, arguably, the Christian denomination most clearly discriminated by the Enlightenment, and for similar reasons. With all of the new scientific discoveries, new thought processes were developed. James Schmidt (Berkeley, CA, 1996), 45–232. The idea of conscience as a moral guide has been central to the Christian tradition since the teachings of Paul.48 Even scholastic theologians, such as Thomas of Aquinas, insisted that obeying one's conscience was always a moral imperative. Enlightenment philosophy tends to stand in tension with established religion, insofar as the release from self-incurred immaturity in this age, daring to think for oneself, awakening one's intellectual powers, generally requires opposing the role of established religion in directing thought and action. For their part, religious sceptics easily accused those who held any strong beliefs of enthusiasm. 76 Scott Sowerby, Making Toleration (Cambridge, MA, 2013), 42. 99 Voltaire, Traité sur la tolérance, ch. As Candide reads like an adventure story, there is a lot of dialogue between characters. Age Of Enlightenment Impact on Religion. Prior to the Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution in the 15 and 1600s set up the basis of secular and introspective thinking that is characteristic to the enlightenment. What distinguished Bayle from Aquinas is that, for Aquinas, one was to blame if one failed to acquire a correct conscience, whereas Bayle's views on the human mind led him to a much more complex understanding of the relation between conscience and truth.49 In early modern times, the process of conscience formation became increasingly perceived as not entirely subject to the will and as not totally conducive to the truth. There the Jew, the Mahometan, and the Christian deal with o… For their part, atheists like Holbach insisted that religion constituted a ‘source of divisions’ and was thus incompatible with the desirable ‘union and concord among citizens’.68 Projects for concord diversified, rather than disappeared, during the Enlightenment. The extent to which this mentality, this new regard for tolerance, expanded beyond the intellectual elite in Enlightenment Europe is arguable. This fact begs the question of the adequacy of the phrase the ‘Age of Enlightenment’. Enlightenment's attitude towards religion as an opposition to bigotry and ecclesiastic authority based on Enlightenment thinkers sought to curtail the political power of organized religion, and thereby prevent another age of intolerant religious war. Both conversions and interfaith marriages were considered taboo in early modern religious life. 29 David Hume, ‘On Superstition and Enthusiasm’, in Essays and Treatises, 48–51 (49). 57 Mario Turchetti, ‘Religious Concord and Political Tolerance in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century France’, The Sixteenth Century Journal, 22 (1991), 15–25. According to some scholarly accounts, a reliance on rational, non-religious arguments most distinguishes Enlightenment theories on toleration from previous ones. The contributions to this special issue make clear that the relationship between the theory and practice of toleration in the Age of Enlightenment is more complex than is often assumed. The centrality of Christian ideas on conscience and belief set important limits to early Enlightenment discourses on toleration. Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, MA, 2007), 333–58; Toleration in Enlightenment Europe, ed. Given the above, it is not easy to make general remarks on the relationship between Enlightenment and toleration. I. The Enlightenment is often seen as the great age of religious and intellectual toleration, and this volume is the first systematic pan-European survey of the theory, practice, and very real limits to toleration in eighteenth century Europe. (1723-1737) [Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the All the Peoples of the World], it is possible to see how a new visual understanding of religion emerged in the course of the eighteenth century and how Enlightenment notions of religious toleration could develop into truly revolutionary laws about freedom of religion. Past and Present (Cambridge, 2013), 170–265. Locke said tolerance was the chief characteristic of the true Christian. The views of the Enlightenment did to find their way inside the palaces of Europe's leaders; however, the monarchs retained their great, The Age of Enlightenment was an intellectual movement that occurred in the 18th century.

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