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I would not have been able to finish this book in book form because of the constant stream of new concepts the author uses, but, on the Kindle or equivalent device this book is a delight to read.
Wikipedia tells me the book was originally published in and was revised in the s, but basically as I was reading the book it became apparent almost all of the citations were pre That gives the modern reader an interesting perspective on how the scholar from the 60s saw the thought of the s. Gay presents an interpertation of the Enlightenment that is persuasive.
He connects and then distinguishes the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, the early English Enlightenment and the later French Enlightenment. His primary theme is that the reintroduction of Greek and Latin teaching into the European mind led to the death of christian thought and the creation of Modernity.
Spends a lot of pages on the effect of Pyrrhonism no truth avalabile and the focus of the philophoses on destroying the christian culture.
Makes clear that the christian culture was largely pagan from the start. Augustine's Platonism was built into the catholic world. Gay notes "Lorenzo de Medici could say in all seriousness that one could not be either a good citizen or a good Christian without being a good Platonist.
What makes the era of pagan Christianity special is that the dominant form of that agony was a struggle between Christian and classical modes of thought. He wrote claiming divine inspiration for Plato. Another connection between the Renaissance and the enlightenment is that both the Humanists and the philosophes were "their ties to the rulers of states; they were their servants, correspondents and friends, and on favorable occasions, their critics. Gay explains that the desire for peace led to the goal of "natural religion" which was mainly drawn from stoicism.
Grotius, a devout Christian, wrote in a famous passage; "natural law is so unalterable that God himself cannot change it.
One startling facet of this book is the authors willingness to analyze conflicting ideas. After spending a large part of the pages showing the weakening of Christian thought, he presents the devout faith of the early members of the Royal Society. Of course the most famous is Newton "whom the philosophes unanimously and categoricaly called the greatest man who ever lived - was a passionately religious man; he expressed that passion In his scientific speculations, his profound preoccupation with theology and biblical chronology, and his private correspondence.
When Voltaire was in England in , the year before Newton's death, he had several conversations with Samuel Clarke, Newton's devoted philosophical friend, and he later recalled that this Philosopher always pronounced the name of God within air of contemplation and extreme respect. Nor, as Voltaire also knew, was Newton merely a pallid theist.
These two are hot. Edad 24 años. This was the beginning of deism, which maintained a healthy respect for Jesus as a teacher, but held that his teachings were distinct from what resulted as the Christian religion. Religion retreated to the extent that philosophy and science advanced. So impressed is this reader I intend to read all of Gay's twenty-some odd productions, including those half-dozen on Freud despite my dismissal of Freud.
He was a Christian, a Socinian, Voltaire wrote, Who refused to reduce his system to Deism as other Socinians had done. Much of the decency in 17th century civilization, much of its intelligence and critical acumen, was exercised by Christians for Christian purposes. And it was largely these Christians who created the atmosphere of the late 17th and early 18th century into which the philosophes were born. Then Christ appeared, he better pedagogue, bringing the second dispensation, teaching immortality, original sin, and justification.
But this, even at its purest, is not man's goal. When mankind is ready and the time is right, a third dispensation will come forth, the third gospel predicted by mid evil enthusiasts. Is mankind never to reach is highest step of enlightenment and purity? Gay makes the point that the loss of faith was more due to cultural suicide than cultural murder. Diderot, a virulent atheist, wrote about a Christian friend; "He goes to mass without believing in it too much; respects religion and laughs Up his sleeve at the jokes made against it; hopes for resurrection without being too sure about the nature of the soul.
In general he is a large heap of contradictory ideas which make his conversation a complete pleasure. Think of the loss of faith in Aristotle at this same time. Hume "noted in his private correspondence the progress of the tolerant mood which is the brother to religious indifference.
This - the concessions to modernity, to criticism, science, and philosophy, and to good tone - this was the treason of the clerks. The church of England, one good Anglican said, was an admirable "institution because it is fit for the people, subject to the laws, and most suitable to the clergy. For here, without care, without thought, and without trouble, honour and care are enjoyed at once, which is a state that most men wish for.
A tolerance based on indifference or on calculation only encouraged indifference or calculation in turn. Sermons and educational tracts continued to treat the traditional subjects, but they treated them in a new way, almost as if a Philosophe so were looking over their author's shoulder. The old simple stark faith was being replaced by a gentler version, appropriate to a public informed about scientific discoveries and striving for bourgeois comforts.
The very props of religious emotion were weakened in the widespread appeal to reason and reasonableness. It asks 'if God was one in three, why could he, Reimarus, never visualize the Trinity in a coherent image? If all who were damned we're damned forever, why did the Christian religion ask members to think of their God as the God of love, and of Jesus Christ as the bringer of salvation? Greek ideas poison bibical understanding. Provides an extensive explanation of deism and the long term effect.
Girl, who witnessed the deist phase of German thought, rightly suggested that in an atmosphere saturated with Newtonian science and the cult of common sense, deism was a perfectly sensible religion to adopt.
The scope of Peter Gay's scholarship is rather mind blowing - appears he has read every text or book dealing with his subject from ancient Greece to the present day. His writing style is immaculate; no wasted words and the ability to bring alive the many fine distinctions that separate the players in his book - plus he has a cagey sense of humor.
I like to underline passages in a book that I think are either well said or summarize certain points should I return to the book at a later date for a fast read. With this book ended up underlining about half of it! This is not a book for those looking for a quick overview of the Enlightenment; it really gets down into the weeds, but the level of detail and Gay's ability to discriminate and make clear the subtle differences between these historical figures is also what makes it an enduring classic.
If, as is probably the case with the vast majority of Americans in their 50s or younger, your high school "social studies" courses left you clueless about European history, this book is an excellent gap-filler for 18th-century Europe. Somehow the author has a knack for getting the historical background across from Classic times and the Renaissance in such a way that the big picture came together, even though my high school education was. Don't let the title fool you.
I thought the book would be a Christian critique of the Enlightenment or something like that, but it's nothing of the sort. And the author is painstakingly fair to all sides. At age 90 - and still with us - we hope Peter Gay remains another sixty to seventy years so we might garner another half dozen books from him.
While "The Enlightenment" was written in , the ancients of years ago haven't changed much, nor have those Enlightenment philosophers of years past that brought them back to life. In other words, the subjects of Gay's analysis and his stunning synthesis in this book remain relevant in any time, and what a book it is.
So impressed is this reader I intend to read all of Gay's twenty-some odd productions, including those half-dozen on Freud despite my dismissal of Freud.
This interest in psychology - as slippery as it is - is apparent in Gay's "Enlightenment" revealing nuance after nuance with a sagacity and precision those in the field must wish they could approximate. Gay's treatment of the philosophes virtually rebuilds them whole with their biases, friendships, venom, insights, vulnerabilities, courage and persistence that freed the rest of us in the here-and-now. Note taking from this book may exceed its length due to the rareness of blank space left on a page after marginalia and highlights, and not infrequently for the joy of Gay's writing skills noted simply so I can combine words the way he did.
Metaphors and similes make this read like a novel. Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats; life is a desert, but we can transform our corner into a garden.
It's nice to be back. A magnificent, thorough, and long book pages , impeccably documented, the first volume of two. A "must read" for anyone interested in the Enlightenment. The "cheerleaders" of the Enlightenment, from all over Europe, called themselves the philosophes. For a preview, read the 25 page beginning, "Overture. Hebrews and Hellenes: As the philosophes of the Enlightenment saw it, the world was divided into two irreconcilable patterns of life: superstition versus the affirmation of life; mythmakers versus realists; priests versus philosophers. The historical writings of the Enlightenment were all part of their comprehensive effort to secure rational control over the world and freedom from the pervasive domination of myth.
The most glaring and notorious defect of the Enlightenment was its unsympathetic, often brutal, estimate of Christianity.