4. The Eighteenth Century.
From this time we see
the spread of unbelief amongst the
intelligentsia, and
in the latter part of the eighteenth century the
deism
is sometimes changing into atheism, though it is too
easily
forgotten that the nineteenth century was still
to be a great epoch in the
history of religion and that,
in England, for example, the churches still
had a great
hold on the masses at the beginning of the twentieth
century. From this time, too, the Church—and partic-
ularly the Catholic Church—came to be afraid
of
science and discovery, beginning what was to be a long
and unhappy
rearguard action against the forces of
modernity. In France, where the philosophe movement
brought the Age of Reason to its
climax, the conflict
between the Roman Catholic and the liberal or pro-
gressive sections of society seems to
have produced an
almost permanent sundering of the national tradition.
In England the antithesis in the eighteenth century was
less severe, partly
because the churchmen there proved
to be no mean antagonists, and partly
because the
influence of nonconformity helped to bridge the gap
between religious conservatism and secular liberalism.
In Methodism a
strong desire to awaken the social
conscience of the country was balanced
by a moderate
political outlook which is sometimes regarded as hav-
ing helped to save the country from the
turmoil of
a French Revolution. Protestantism, moreover, proved
more
flexible than Catholicism at the critical period.
There emerges now a
Protestantism in many ways
radically unlike that of the sixteenth century.
It claims
to be the ally of humanism, rationalism, individualism,
and
liberty.
At this point in the story a significant part was
played by that interesting
figure, the “lapsed Chris-
tian”—the man who has thrown overboard the theo-
logical dogmas, but has not been able to
jettison a host
of assumptions, mundane evaluations and ideals, views
about personality and the structure of the human
drama, which had been
associated with the Christian
tradition. One aspect of the eighteenth
century is the
more or less unconscious attempt to provide a counter-
system to
Christianity—at least to fill the gap which
was left when the
Church was taken out of the picture.
It showed itself in minor writings,
provincial move
ments, local activity—an interesting attempt for ex-
ample to teach a secular morality, a kind of
public
spirit, and to promote virtue by rewarding it with civic
prizes.
Sometimes the rivalry became conscious and the
enemies of the Church would
claim that they were
the better Christians; they were solicitous for the
hum-
ble and poor, while the church-people
were intent
on mere ceremonies. Sometimes the critics were justi-
fied in their accusations and it would
seem that they
themselves, by breaking with the Church, had disem-
barrassed themselves of conventions
which hindered
the realization of what Christian charity really did
require. One enemy of the Church still made the curi-
ous note that it would be good for men to meet once
a week for a
homily on morality. And the famous
“philosophies of
history”—the attempts to lay out the
shape of the
whole course of centuries—were (down
to the time of Hegel) a
curious reflection of earlier
Christian attempts to lay out the plan of
world history,
the design of Providence. A number of
ideals—liberty,
democracy, egalitarianism, socialism,
communism—
had been caught first from biblical sources and Chris-
tian principles by religious dissidents
who, as a minor-
ity, could more easily dare to
follow principles to their
logical conclusion. But the real battle for
their actual
realization was often fought either by non-Christians
or
by religious nonconformists, and by a curious para-
dox the official church sometimes seemed to be the
principal enemy
that had to be fought. In this realm,
too, the churches too often committed
themselves to
a lengthy rearguard action. Having imagined that
Christianity could not survive the destruction of the
Aristotelian cosmos,
they easily convinced themselves
that it might not survive the destruction
of a particular
kind of regime. In other words, they had tied their
religion too closely to various types of mundane sys-
tems. And the course of history drove them to enquire
more
deeply into the question: What was the essential
thing in the Christian
faith?
Protestantism fared better than Catholicism in the
eighteenth century; for
in Britain's American colonies
the earlier half of the century saw a
religious awaken-
ing in which Jonathan
Edwards was a central figure;
it might be said that the Seven Years' War
(1756-63)
decided that the northern continent of America should
be
predominantly Protestant; and the rise of Prussia
and Russia added great
weight to the non-Catholic part
of Europe. Even in the religious and
devotional life,
it was Protestantism that showed itself the more dy-
namic throughout the period. On this side, the
story
illustrates the point that one can hardly put limits to
the
conditions which provoke a religious revival. The
thing can come by
surprise at the moment which seems
the most unfavorable; and the weather that withers
the routine
of religion in official churches may be just
the kind to bring out a
spontaneous growth, a develop-
ment outside
the recognized program.
In the later decades of the seventeenth century (just
as deism was coming to
the front) there emerged in
Germany a pietism which may have had
antecedents
in the later Middle Ages, and which, as it spread to
neighboring countries, may have owed something to
English Puritanism and to
movements in Holland. It
first became important in the Lutheran church
in
Germany, but in the Netherlands and then in Germany
it spread to
the Reformed churches, and its influence
was increased by the ascendancy
that it acquired in
the university of Halle. A similar movement was
that
of the Moravians, who were established in the lands
of Count
Zinzendorf and extended their influence
abroad, even to England and
America; John Wesley
was one of the people who acknowledged a debt to
them.
Evangelicalism in the English-speaking world is in
fact a parallel
phenomenon. It was an essential feature
of the movement that mere
membership in organized
churches and the routine participation in the
offices
of these were not sufficient for the authentic Christian.
The
nominal believer still needed to be properly
“converted” and to bring the matter home to himself;
and the “conversion” should come after he had been
seized with a vivid conviction of his sinfulness. No
great interest was
shown in theological discussions and
dogmatic controversy—there
was just an insistence that
a man should be born again, and that he should
have
a personal experience of Christ. At the same time Bible
reading
was emphasized, there was a great love of
hymn singing, great importance
was attached to
philanthropic work. One might remain a member of
the
state-church, but in any case one would join little
informal groups which
were meant for fellowship,
study, and prayer.
An important feature of eighteenth-century Protes-
tantism was the formation of religious societies, some
of which
would comprise members of various denomi-
nations—societies which would promote foreign mis-
sions, educational work, the care of the
poor, or a
particular measure of reform, and which became more
numerous as the century drew to its close. From evan-
gelical circles in England there arose the demand
for
an improvement in prisons, the attack on slavery and
the
slave-trade, and the later cry for industrial legisla-
tion. And from laymen who had been trained by
their
activity in religious groups there emerged some of the
working-class leaders of the nineteenth century.
