The Enlightenment intellectual and cultural movement of the 18th century that challenged traditional Europe in every way. It asserted that traditional European institutions (the Christian Church, divine right monarchy, hereditary aristocracy, and divinely-ordained social inequality) were anachronistic and corrupt, that human reason and science could solve the problems of the human condition, and that God was a “divine clockmaker” uninvolved directly in human affairs. Man, per the Enlightenment thinkers, was basically good and had no need of salvation through a divine savior.
For this assignment, you will read and view the following material:
Podcasts: R.C. Sproul, The Rise of the Enlightenment https://renewingyourmind.org/2020/03/09/the-rise-of-the-enlightenment; The Aftermath of the Enlightenment https://renewingyourmind.org/2020/03/10/the-aftermath-of-the-enlightenment (Listen to these podcasts first as an introduction)
Reading: John Gerstner, Theopedia. https://www.theopedia.com/john-gerstner (Links to an external site.) (read before watching the following video)
Video: John Gerstner, The Enlightenment – Root and Branch Attack on Reformers.
Enlightenment – Root and Branch Attack on Reformers: Handout Church History with John Gerstner (Links to an external site.)
Enlightenment – Root and Branch Attack on Reformers: Handout Church History with John Gerstner
Carl Trueman, The Status of Scripture in Theology from the Enlightenment.
https://www.uniontheology.org/resources/doctrine/scripture/the-status-of-scripture-in-theology-from-the-enlightenment (Links to an external site.)
After engaging this material, you will submit on the due date listed in the Course Schedule an essay on how each of these apologists defend the Christian faith against the critique of the Enlightenment as explained above. Specifically, identify and analyze at least one argument made by each man.
