The Enlightenment

Summary

The sermon traces the triumph of humanism, exemplified by Erasmus, over Reformation theology in the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, which rejected the Augustinian view of human corruption and original sin. This intellectual movement, prevalent in Germany (Aufklärung), France, and England, profoundly shaped the emerging United States and Western Europe. The takeaway is the diverse nature of the Enlightenment, encompassing thinkers from the deeply religious to the staunchly skeptical, rather than a unified philosophical front.