by Effie Moore Salem

Created on: June 02, 2007   Last Updated: July 21, 2010

Enlightenment, according to the European intellectual movement in the seventeenth and eighteenth century concerned how people were changing their beliefs about God, about nature and about man. These literary thinkers were a group dedicating themselves to correcting the errors they thought previous writers and scientists and religious leaders had perpetrated upon society. They set out to define philosophy and art, politics and the like with a new enlightenment as they called it.

Everything previously thought and held sacred was up for scrutiny. From this movement came the notion that reasoning and the ability to apply human thought to difficult situations was far superior to traditional beliefs. Truth to them was more earth born than heavenly and their sacredness more concerned nature than a diety they could not relate to.

Enlightenment as defined by the dictionary is: "an act of enlightenment; a movement of the eighteenth century marked by the free use of reason and the rise of humanism."

Enlightenment was very much a rebellion against the set ways of thinking about God and the universe. It was an attempt to bring thinking down to now instead of having it up there and back to a time when Rome and Greece were in their heyday. Enlightenment was celebrated by poets such as Wordsworth and Coleridge and Burns others of the time who saw what they needed to see in Nature.

Reasoning things out for themselves was a big part of this movement that was so much a part of 17th century England. Actually, this time in history has given way to much skepticism, to a form of religion known as Deism. It is a religion where nature is God. It is all down here for us to investigate and to ponder over.

This period in history also brought with it a total lack of belief in a Supreme Being and gave rise to much atheistic thoughts. Intellectualism and belief in ones self was all that was needed, some believed. Of course, it, in a certain sense, had its good reasons for coming along and shaking up the establishment, but the thinking went too far. Out of its turbulence came great thoughts and some good insights that made for even better genuine religious experiences.

God is a God of the here and now as much of He was there in the days of Old Testament history. He will not be denied his right to be heard and will find ways of picking up the pieces of whatever shattering experiences that come his way. Looked at in this way, I am sure the enlightenment was a good thing in that it made possible and made it important that people think for themselves.

Since the days of enlightenment the world has reconsidered and have come to the belief that both Heaven and earth are necessary for the edification of the other. One, in other words, cannot exist without the other. Yet, in the favor of the enlightened times, it is still considered to have been an important turning point toward the freeing of the intellect and it allowed a broader view of life in general.

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