Modern Challenges

René Descartes
1596-1650
What’s real is no longer out there—an
external objective.
Real is a creation of the mind.
Cogito ergo sum
We can only achieve certainty by doubting
everything.
Baruch Spinoza
1632-1677
He thought that all religions exhibited
superstitions.
True Christianity=universal moral
characteristics of love, joy, peace, honesty,
etc.
False Christianity, on the other hand, is
dogmatic Christianity, which by definition is
prejudicial and and unreasonable.
The use of reason must be applied to the
Bible.
The result is that the truth of Scripture is
that which agrees with the autonomous
rational mind.
This means that there needs to be
freedom from the dogmatic constraints of
the church.
The emphasis is on morality, not dogma.
John Locke
1632-1704
Reason must be our guide to everything.
If something is contrary to reason, it must
be rejected despite any religious authority.
When he looked to the Bible, he saw a
simple faith and call to a moral life.
Jesus established a rationale morality and
rid the religion of his day from superstition.
Nothing in the Bible to support doctrines
such as the Trinity.
Christianity should focus on morality and
natural religion.
Gottfried von Leibniz
1646-1716
 Gottfried von Leibniz
1646-1716
Jesus reveals the mystery and laws of the
Kingdom.
Jesus teaches us the will of God.
Jesus only points us to the Father.
Immanuel Kant
1724-1804
 What is Enlightenment?
“Enlightenment is man’s release from his self-
incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man’s inability to
make use of his understanding without direction
from another. Self-incurred is this tutelage when
its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of
resolution and courage to use it without direction
from another. Sapere aude! ‘Have courage to
use your own reason!’–that is the motto of
enlightenment.

–Immanuel Kant, Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals and

What Is Enlightenment? (New York: Liberal Arts Press, 1959)
New Idea: mind is active, rather than a
passive receptacle.
Rational philosophy could not defend
belief in God.
For Kant, God was a moral necessity.
Gotthold Lessing
1729-1781
Dramatist
Like Kant, a spokesperson for
Enlightenment thinking.
“Accidental truths of history can never
become the proof of necessary truths of
reason”—ugly broad ditch.
Play, “Nathan the Wise”
Parable of the Three Rings
 Parable of the Three Rings
In ancient times it was the custom for the father
to give his favorite son a ring for his inheritance.
The ring possessed a king of magic power to
make the one who owned it loved by God and
humanity. A certain fath has three sons whom
he loves equally. In order to hurt none of them,
he has two perfect imitations of the true ring
made. Before the father dies, he gives each son
his blessing along with one of the rings. Each of
the three sons thinks he has the true ring and
considers the others false.
 Parable—2
The three sons go to the wise judge
Nathan, who becomes the spokesman for
the superior counsel of the new philosophy
of the Enlightenment. All three rings may
be false, but there’s no way to tell; so
Nathan offers his wise counsel:
 Parable—3
“Let each think his own is without doubt the
real ring and trust that, in the long run, in a
thousand thousand years, it will establish
itself by the ‘proof of the spirit and power.’”
Meanwhile, each son should show forth
“gentleness, a heart-felt tolerance, good
works and deep submission to God’s will.”
Each religion is of equal value; no one
religion contains the ultimate truth.
Makes the distinction between “the religion
of Christ” and “the Christian religion.”
Friedrich Schleiermacher
1768-1834
Tried to adapt traditional Christian
concepts into modern language
Truth of Christianity not in an external
objective reality
Subjective
Religion is a “feeling of absolute
dependence”
Considered Jesus to be the perfect human
being.
Jesus has a unique God-consciousness,
who by exerting his influence on his
followers raised their God-consciousness.
No need for things such as the
resurrection.
Ludwig Feuerbach
1804-1872
Reduces Christianity to anthropology
“Religion is the dream of the human mind.”
God is the projection of humankind’s
consciousness.
David Friedrich Strauss
1808-1874
“Life of Jesus”
NT is mythological rather than historical
Challenges the historical claims of the NT
Charles Darwin
1809-1882
Theory of evolution
Challenged the church’s understanding of
the origins of the world and humankind.
 Karl Marx
1818-1883
Political philosopher
Father of communism
Viewed religion negatively—something left
over from the pre-modern world
Religion is the “opiate of the people,”
creating an illusory happiness.
Once justice established, no longer a need
for religion.
Friedrich Nietzsche
1844-1900
End of religion
“God is dead.”
Parable of the madman
Sigmund Freud
1856-1939
Father of psychoanalysis
Like Marx, held a negative view of religion
and its influence
Religion is an illusion