The Catholic Enlightenment: The Forgotten History of a Global Movement Book PDF, ePub eBook

Join our eBook service for unlimited books & audiobooks. Get a free 7 day subscription! ↓↓↓↓↓


Book Descriptions:
"Whoever needs an act of faith to elucidate an event that can be explained by reason is a fool, and unworthy of reasonable thought." This line, spoken by the notorious 18th-century libertine Giacomo Casanova, illustrates a deeply entrenched perception of religion, as prevalent today as it was hundreds of years ago. It is the sentiment behind the narrative that Catholic beliefs were incompatible with the Enlightenment ideals. Catholics, many claim, are superstitious and traditional, opposed to democracy and gender equality, and hostile to science. It may come as a surprise, then, to learn that Casanova himself was a Catholic. In The Catholic Enlightenment, Ulrich L. Lehner points to such figures as representatives of a long-overlooked thread of a reform-minded Catholicism, which engaged Enlightenment ideals with as much fervor and intellectual gravity as anyone. Their story opens new pathways for understanding how faith and modernity can interact in our own time.

Lehner begins two hundred years before the Enlightenment, when the Protestant Reformation destroyed the hegemony Catholicism had enjoyed for centuries. During this time the Catholic Church instituted several reforms, such as better education for pastors, more liberal ideas about the roles of women, and an emphasis on human freedom as a critical feature of theology. These actions formed the foundation of the Enlightenment's belief in individual freedom. While giants like Spinoza, Locke, and Voltaire became some of the most influential voices of the time, Catholic Enlighteners were right alongside them. They denounced fanaticism, superstition, and prejudice as irreconcilable with the Enlightenment agenda.

In 1789, the French Revolution dealt a devastating blow to their cause, disillusioning many Catholics against the idea of modernization. Popes accumulated ever more power and the Catholic Enlightenment was snuffed out. It was not until the Second Vatican Council in 1962 that questions of Catholicism's compatibility with modernity would be broached again.

Ulrich L. Lehner tells, for the first time, the forgotten story of these reform-minded Catholics. As Pope Francis pushes the boundaries of Catholicism even further, and Catholics once again grapple with these questions, this book will prove to be required reading.

The Catholic Enlightenment: The Forgotten History of a Global Movement by Ulrich L. Lehner

From reader reviews:

Henry Jensen:

Why don't make it to become your habit? Right now, try to ready your time to do the important act, like looking for your favorite reserve and reading a guide. Beside you can solve your trouble; you can add your knowledge by the reserve entitled The Catholic Enlightenment: The Forgotten History of a Global Movement. Try to make book The Catholic Enlightenment: The Forgotten History of a Global Movement as your friend. It means that it can for being your friend when you really feel alone and beside regarding course make you smarter than ever before. Yeah, it is very fortuned for yourself. The book makes you much more confidence because you can know every thing by the book. So , let us make new experience as well as knowledge with this book.

Janice Martin:

The book The Catholic Enlightenment: The Forgotten History of a Global Movement give you a sense of feeling enjoy for your spare time. You should use to make your capable more increase. Book can to get your best friend when you getting anxiety or having big problem using your subject. If you can make looking at a book The Catholic Enlightenment: The Forgotten History of a Global Movement being your habit, you can get much more advantages, like add your own personal capable, increase your knowledge about several or all subjects. You can know everything if you like open and read a guide The Catholic Enlightenment: The Forgotten History of a Global Movement. Kinds of book are a lot of. It means that, science reserve or encyclopedia or others. So , how do you think about this guide?

Julie Gooch:

You may spend your free time to see this book this reserve. This The Catholic Enlightenment: The Forgotten History of a Global Movement is simple to bring you can read it in the park your car, in the beach, train and soon. If you did not have much space to bring the printed book, you can buy the particular e-book. It is make you better to read it. You can save the book in your smart phone. Consequently there are a lot of benefits that you will get when you buy this book.

Armando Morris:

A number of people said that they feel bored when they reading a publication. They are directly felt the item when they get a half regions of the book. You can choose typically the book The Catholic Enlightenment: The Forgotten History of a Global Movement to make your reading is interesting. Your own skill of reading expertise is developing when you similar to reading. Try to choose simple book to make you enjoy to learn it and mingle the opinion about book and looking at especially. It is to be first opinion for you to like to open a book and read it. Beside that the book The Catholic Enlightenment: The Forgotten History of a Global Movement can to be your new friend when you're sense alone and confuse with what must you're doing of these time.