Rethinking The Enlightenment

Many cultural commentators point to the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century as the starting point for secular modernity. Rethinking the Enlightenment argues it is necessary to recover a fuller picture of the Enlightenment by identifying three ways Christians interacted with it: conflict, engagement, and retreat.

Stuart illustrates these responses to the Enlightenment by telling stories of major characters and events. The dramatic martyrdom of the Carmelites of Compiegne reveals how certain Enlightenment ideas conflicted with basic Christian beliefs about divine revelation and human nature, especially in France. The legacy of Catholic sin only made the conflict worse. However, this us-versus-them confrontational response did not define the whole story.

When Christians decided not to engage, they often retreated, as shown from the English-speaking world. They built up Christian culture from within-starting with individual households. But their spiritual retreat from the world exploded outward in powerful evangelical movements across the century. Christians discovered that loss of faith could be reversed with the help of the Practical Enlightenment itself. These distinct strategies-each valuable depending on the cultural situation-have exciting implications for Christianity and culture in the twenty-first century.

In Rethinking the Enlightenment, Stuart hopes to awaken readers to embrace conflict, engagement, and retreat in our time, and to avoid one-sided interpretations of the faith. Stuart writes for a general audience interested in both the secular and religious roots of the modern world.