HIST 383 Chapter reading: Reading The Eighteenth Century
Document Summary
The church of england was regarded as spiritually moribund but exceptionally privileged with less glorious episcopal outposts in. Methodism was seen as an english species of counter- enlightenment enthusiasm designed to convert, delude and subjugate the masses. The 18th century was the age of enlightenment in which faith and superstition gradually gave way to reason, revelation to natural theology and intolerance to tolerance. It was seen as having a specific chronology with a relatively unified body of ideas and emphasis on use of reason in understanding and improving human condition. Enlightenment ideas require proper social and economic contexts. Ideas and books were marketable commodities in the growth of commercial economies. Definitions of enlightenment needed to be flexible enough to embrace the traditional and movements which captured unambiguously counter enlightenment. For most of the 18th century the biblical narratives conditioned views about the history and destiny of the world. Both focused on the purpose and sequence of god"s creative energy.
