See pages 220 to 221 of the McGrath textbook on the rise of Enlightenment in Western Europe, especially in Protestant areas, especially in Calvinist areas. At the same time, Enlightenment did not seem to flourish in areas of Roman Catholic Europe, and it goes without saying that the Enlightenment did not arise in Eastern Orthodox realms.
Write 300 words on why you think Calvinist Protestantism had a greater affinity with the so-called ‘Age of Reason’ of the Enlightenment. Why do you think Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism proved to be more resistant to radical rationalism than Reformed Protestantism?
- Give a brief review or summary of the growth of the Enlightenment perspective in predominantly Protestant areas of Europe, from chapter 4, pp. 220 and 221.
- Give your own reaction to the idea that the Enlightenment took root and grew in primarily Calvinist areas.
- Do you think that this might indicate that certain types of Protestantism over-emphasized rationalism to the exclusion of mystery and revelation?