Description
This book offers a critical survey of religious change and its causes in eighteenth-century Europe, and constitutes a challenge to the accepted views in traditional Enlightenment studies. Focusing on Enlightenment Italy, France and England, it illustrates how the canonical view of eighteenth-century religious change has in reality been constructed upon scant evidence and assumption, in particular the idea that the thought of the enlightened led to modernity. For, despite a lack of evidence, one of the fundamental assumptions of Enlightenment studies has been the assertion that there was a vibrant Deist movement which formed the "intellectual solvent" of the eighteenth century. The central claim of this book is that the immense ideological appeal of the traditional birth-of-modernity myth has meant that the actual lack of Deists has been glossed over, and a quite misleading historical view has become entrenched.
An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.
About the Author
S.J. Barnett is Subject Leader in History of Ideas, University of Kingston-Upon-Thames
Reviews
'This book makes an important case for rethinking the relationship between the Enlightenment and religion. It contributes to a new understanding of familiar material by treating it in an original and stimulating manner and will be valuable to both specialists and general readers.' Jane Shaw, New College, Oxford
Book Information
ISBN 9780719067419
Author S. Barnett
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Manchester University Press
Publisher Manchester University Press
Weight(grams) 304g
Dimensions(mm) 215mm * 138mm * 14mm
