Enlightenment and Deism:
Rationalism in 18th Century America
“From the Reformation to the Constitution”
Bill Petro
your friendly neighborhood historian
05/16/2010
billpetro.com/v7pc
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Objectives
By the end of this session you should be able to
• Trace the rise of the Enlightenment
• Identify the key players in the Enlightenment
• Discuss Deism and Unitarianism
• Identify the political theory of John Locke and its
influence on the Founding Fathers
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American Church History
Colonial
National
1787
Calvinism
Theocentrism
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Modern
1865
Arminianism
Liberalism
Biblistic Rationalism Subjectivism
Existentialism
Anthropocentrism
Liberalism
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Summary of the Great Awakening
• Increase of new members: 30-40,000
• Increase of new churches: 1740-60: 150 congs.
• Increase in students to prepare for the ministry
• Increase in new denominations: Bapt. & Methodists
• New stress on Missions
• Aided in beginning the American Revolution
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Colleges
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1636: Harvard – Puritans, to train clergy
1701: Yale – “to train men to preach the Gospel
1749: College of Phila – U. of Penn (revival hall)
1762: Queens – became Rutgers
1726: College of New Jersey – Princeton
Moore’s Indian Charity Training College – to train
Indians, moved to Dartmouth
• College of R.I. (Baptist) – Brown
• Kings College of N.Y. – Colombia, to train Indians
• All Ivy League Colleges (except Cornell) were to train
men for the ministry
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Emotional - Intellectual
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Enlightenment
• Post-Reformation
• Rebellion against it, in the guise of intellectualism,
empiricism that really denied the faith of the
Reformation
• “Reality is what I observe with my own senses”
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Immanuel Kant
• Professor of Logic,
Koniegsburg, Prussia
• Critique of Pure Reason
• Critique of Practical Reason
• Religion reduced to moral acts,
revising the Reformation
• God no longer active
• Man must reach out to God
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Reformation
Enlightenment
16 & 17th century
18th century
Roman Catholicism
Protestantism
Rationalism
Holy Church
Holy Bible
Human Reason
Authoritarianism
Pope and Councils
Creeds
(Secondary)
Philosophical
Systems
God
God
Salvation
Authority
Approaches to Authority and the Enlightenment
God
Church
Man
Man
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Christ
Man
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From Revelation to Reason
Present: Adulthood
Past: Infancy
Reason
Rational Religion
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External Authority
Sole Authority
Reason
Rejected
In Enlightenment
Revelation
Rejected
In Reformation
Tradition
Irrationality (Myth Makers)
Traditional Religion (superstition)
Innate Authority
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th
19
Century culture
• Framework: => U.S. & French Revolutions
• Music:
Baroque & Classical
• Art:
Neo-classical
• Politics:
=> Socialism & Communism
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th
19
Century features
• Moralism
• Optimism: logical positivism
• Pelagianism
• Closed System Universe
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Isaac Newton
• Principia Mathematica
• Implicit: man has ability to
discover secrets of the universe,
control destiny
• Narrowing gulf between God
and man
• Effect: corrosive effect on
Calvinistic orthodoxy,
more rational, less emotional
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Deism
• A system of belief that a transcendent God left
his creation to be governed by Natural Laws
discernable by reason.
• “God is absentee”
• No miracles, no revelation, no God-man
• Jesus as Moral Teacher
• Bible as guidebook for ethical life, virtue, piety
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Deism: Origin
• Science: universe operated on fixed principles,
hence, is a machine operating by fixed natural laws
– Copernicus, Galileo (helio-centricism), Newton (gravity)
• Philosophy: if universe runs on fixed laws,
then the universe can be known by Reason,
without Revelation
– Francis Bacon – Inductive method (observe vs. authority)
• Theology: man can start with himself and find truth
apart from any help
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Descartes: “I think, therefore I am” (mathematical laws)
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Deism: Spread
• Herbert of Cherbury & David Hume
• Carried into France, picked up by Rousseau,
Voltaire, Diderot. Strong impetus from French
Revolution
• Carried to America by English immigrants and
mercenaries (Lafayette)
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Deism: Results
• Contributed to the concept that: if a ruler failed in
responsibility, the people could revolt
– Root of American Revolution
• Developed the concept of man’s goodness
• Developed theory on destructive criticism of Bible
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Unitarianism
• Strict monotheism (not Trinitarianism)
• Deny Christ’s two natures (deity)
• Christ’s death was only to be an example of
true devotion to God
• Deny election and future punishment
• Key to Life: love toward God’s fellow man
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Unitarianism: Origin 1755-1805
• Rose out of practical experience of the people
Wealthy wanted autonomy
• Moneyed classes tended to Nationalism
• Anti-revivalistic attitude
– King’s Church – 1st church to go Unitarian 1782
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Orthodoxy, Unitarianism, and Deism
Orthodoxy
Unitarianism
Deism
Source
of Truth
Reformation
Empiricism
Rationalism
Empiricism
Rationalism
Reformation
Empiricism
Rationalism
God
Theistic;
Plural, personal
Theistic;
Single, personal
Theistic;
Single, transcendent
Medium
of Revelation
Supernatural,
Natural
Natural,
Supernatural
Natural
Person of Christ
God/Man
Archetypal Man
Exemplary Man
Nature of Sin
Derived &
Personal depravity;
Moral inability
Personal depravity
Moral ability
Personal depravity
Moral ability
Penal
Exemplary
(none)
Atonement
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John Locke
• 1632-1704
• Political philosopher
• Argued for the
“reasonableness” of
Christianity
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Letter Concerning Toleration
• Became a “Bible” in the
18th Century
• “Reasonableness” of
Christianity
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Religion and the
American Revolution
• Religion as a Cause of the Revolution
• Religion as a Participant in the Revolution
• Religion in Consequence of the Revolution
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Religion as a Cause of the Revolution
• Influence of the 1st Great Awakening
• Fear of English political control thru Anglicanism
• Clergy molded public opinion by political sermons
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Religion as a Participant in the Revolution
• Congregationalists – most active
• Anglicans – loyalists, but 2/3 of signers of DoI
• Quakers – generally pacifists, but Betsy Ross
• Presbyterians – 1st to accept DoI & identify w/Rev.
• Baptists – intensely loyal, suffered in R.I.
• Methodists – despised as loyalists
• Catholics – non-committal
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Religion in Consequence of the Revolution
Positively:
• Anglicanism disestablished as state religion
• Congregationalism disestablished in New England
• Churches organized nationally:
– Anglican → Protestant Episcopal Church
– Methodist Episcopal Church – Asbury & Coke
– Catholics: Nationally
– Presbyterians: General Assembly w/ John Witherspoon
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Religion in Consequence of the Revolution
Negatively:
• Religion declined because of attention to War
• Reorganizational process for denominations led to a
decline of interest in evangelism
• Stress on rights & worth of the individual led to a
decline of Calvinism
• Not all American leaders were orthodox religiously
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Fundamental 18th-19th Century Shift
Deism
(Rationalism)
Calvinism
(modified)
Evangelicalism
Sovereign God
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Sovereign Man
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1-Word Summary
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Pilgrims
Puritans
Denominations
Whitefield
Wesley
Edwards
Great Awakening
Enlightenment
Deism
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Separatists
Saints
Inclusive
Dramatic
Methodism
Glory
Fire
Rationalism
Mechanistic
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