Editorial August 5, 2019 Issue

True enlightenment

Michael Pabst

The Age of Enlightenment changed the Western world in significant ways that we feel to this day. It might not always be obvious, but a rational, intellectual, scientific approach that is considered by many to be normal today has a lot to do with this movement in Europe, and later, North America, that occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries.

“Particular thinkers began to emphasize the importance of science and reason rather than religion and tradition” (Cambridge Dictionary), and individual thought was empowered. But turning to material reasoning and the physical senses as the foundations for determining reality resulted (and continues to result) in moral aspects of man’s spiritual nature (such as hope and faith) being belittled, ridiculed, and sidelined.

“Seeing is believing” is a typical example of the Enlightenment approach guiding thought today. From a strictly intellectual perspective, this concept makes a lot of sense. But it is limited and limiting. Relegating anything that is not perceptible to the physical senses to the realm of speculation or imagination is denying the true foundation of reality.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Bible Lens

Bible Lens—August 5–11, 2019