Jonathan Edwards was born and raised in America. He absorbed the ideas of John Locke. He used those ideas to articulate Calvinism. Edwards is known as the father of the American Christian Enlightenment. At the age of 14 he said that reading Locke was like mining gold. He underwent an 'experience.' Became a noted preacher at the age of 16 and for 20 years he served at the North Hampton Church is Mass. In early 1730, a revival broke out under his preaching. This was the start of the FIRST GREAT AWAKING. In 1740, the great awaking brought about religious enthusiasm. He was a controversial figure. Freedom of the Will,The nature of Virtue, The History of the work of Redemption, (never finished). Edwards died at 55 from a small pox infection. Edwards was a Calvinist or Augustininite. Also known as the last great Puritan. The sovereign grace of God leaves room for human endeavor, but salvation cannot be attributed to human works. Edwards chose a new vehicle. He chose John Locke and Locke's Empiricism. This was well suited for Calvinism. Human nature is passive and God imprints. Freewill, or to will is a person choice. In Edwards view, humans are free and determined by strength and motive.
Freedom does not mean that we can do things by ourself or ones own will. Circumstance will determine what to do. Motives are often placed in the mind. For Christians, the strongest motive is to go to heaven. God's salvation is from from start to finish. God cannot change so salvation is assured. If God could change then God would not be perfect. This is Calvinist Theology based on Locke's philosophy (actually, Tabula Rosa is from Aristotle).
Alexander Campbell – and super rationalism. A combination of Beacon, Locke, and Newton with the idea that science is king. All of the above were from the then modern schools in Great Briton. The idea now is that we must have the scientific method in conjunction with the Bible. Weave in the scientific method along with a strict Lockean epistemology and Scottish common sense philosophy and we have what was known as Diadictic Philosophy. The chief father of this Thomas Reid. The idea was that we can derive at a common belief that everyone can agree on. By the 19th century, Scottish textbooks featuring the ideas of Beacon and Newton were dominant in America. Once again, science and the Bible go hand in hand. Thomas Campbell was the father of Alexander Campbell. The Campbell's embraced the above ideas. Theories are no good, what we want is facts! Heavens and the universe are run by a system and laws. Nature also has laws and a system. So does the Bible.
The Rise of Liberalism
Liberalism was a fall out from the Enlightenment. There was an ever growing confidence in human reason. Reason replaced revelation as a basis for authority. There were several area of conflict.
2.
a) called into question the authority of the Bible.
b) what about morality
c) what about natural religion
The Enlightenment questioned the Bible being revealed by God!
a) There is a gap between the book of Genesis and Science. b) Textual Criticism. Called into question the text of the bible. Can you trust the Bible. c.) Miracles, the defenders of traditional Christianity always defended the Bible with Miracles. Deism questioned this. Divine intervention cannot happen in the world of the Deist.
Natural Religion -
Locke – 1695,96, Matthew Tyndale----1730, also see Butlers analogy of Religion.
Nature is God's revelation. This threatened Christianity.
a) The Bible is not important.
b) threatened to place Christianity on the same plane as all other religions. But------in the last half of the 18th century something big happens. Human Reasoning is challenged.
Those Developments
1) The revolt against the optimistic view of human reason (cold rationality) was lead by Rosuusau. He put the focus on experience and emotion. The was the Romantic era. This shaped theology.
2) There was an emerging sense of the limits of human reason. a) Kant b) Hume
Between the two, reason was bashed in the head. Hume was a successor of Locke. They were both empiricist. Human knowledge is an individual matter. Hume challenged the entire cause/effect thing. Hume's ideas destroyed the idea of design. The five sense cannot determine God!!!!
1) Sealed the death of Deism. Deism is not rational. Hume carried Locke and empiricism to its fullest range. The conflict was then
Rationalism Empiricism
Descartes---Leibniz Locke and Hume
KANT
Hume jolted Kant. Human knowledge must be reconstructed. Brought about a copernium revolution in philosophy. Our minds must reflect reality. Kant said no----. Reality is already there but our minds give it order. We are not passive recipients of information. Our understanding is shaped by our minds. We cannot conceive a thing in itself apart from the experience.
Nominal things in themselves.
Phenomenal experience of the 5 senses
Space and time are imposed in the mind. Read, religion and the categorical imperative.
3.
Some of Kant's ideas.
A moral sense – a universal rule. Act on a maximum only that is universal. This is the function of practical reason.
Self/soul
World
God
These are the necessary ideas to uphold human life. Religion is the sole function of the moral life.
There were three options after Kant.
work with the Kant structures.
find out if there is more to be said about how one comes to know God
just ignore Kant
To re-cap
There was the 1) Romantic ear the 2) Hume,Kant 3) a new awareness of history!
I. History
Gotthold Lessing. Historical studies shows how culture shapes ideas. Then if that is true, what is it shaping the pictures of Jesus. There is a need to reconstruct history. Gotthold drew attention to the culture gap.
II.
There is a broad ugly ditch of history that I can't jump across. The
past is only indirectly available to us. How can religious certainly
be based on shaky foundations? There are only incidental truths of
history. History can never become the truth of reason. Universal
truths are not historical truths. There is a difference between
truths. So----what is the role of history????
The Response was
from Schleiermacher, Father of Liberal Theology. Schleiermacher, 1884
to Rithesl, 1889. Protestant liberal Theology. Other followed
Schleiermacher. Hegel, Bauer, Strauss, Feuerbed, Kirkegarrd.
II. A new Tension, now we must have the Historical Jesus.
Albert Schweitzer, Weiss, Wrede, Troletesh, all were looking for the historical Jesus.
Schleiermacher, Scripture has been lowered to human tradition. The Bible is not divine revelation. The human experience of God drawing on classical conditions. Must chart a way between traditional orthodoxy and cold rationalism. He was trying to accommodate faith to the new world view of Kant. He accepted Kant's demolition of the knowledge of God. Kant found a place in practical reason but Schleiermacher says religion is nothing but a feeling.
The two influences of Schleiermacher!
his education among the Moravians
The influence of the Romantic movement (Rosseua). Christian doctrines are standards of belief set apart from speech. You are your own sense of absolute dependency. The Bible is not divine authority. the Bible is to shape an awareness of God.
4.
Schleriermacher, there is a science where truth changes and grows. Here is a major shift in thinking. A shift from the objective to the subjective. What kind of truth you offer depends on who you are with. Everything is a statement of feelings. Albert Ritshhl this is a new era of theology!
Adolf Harnack. Launched the Christian doctrine of justification as a movement. Very strong in WWII. He accepted Kant's demolition and Kant's natural theology.
For Harncak, history is revelation rather than mystical religion.
Adolf Harncak—1900 The essence of Christianity!
The coming of God's kingdom.
The Fatherhood of God.
The high righteousness of the love command. Jesus did not proclaim himself but the father. Harnack rejected dogmatic theology. Christianity was a product of Hellenization.
Hegel – Needs to be done in a section all of its own. Touch on W.R. Hutchecim and Walter Roshetush and the social gospel.
Late 19th Century and the Cultural Revolution.
There were changes in American Education. After the Civil war education went through drastic changes. Prior to the Civil War, Protestants controlled the civil education. The Bible was the basic text book for schools. After the Civil War there was a secularization of American Schools. Catholics had invaded America and were fighting with the Protestants. Secularization was a compromise. Read Mcguffies readers to trace the decline of American Education