Catholic perspective of Enlightenment era

[PraiseChrist]

Hi,

Does anyone have online resources of a Catholic perspective for the Enlightenment Era?

Thank you!

 

[Hatikvah]

Hi,

Does anyone have online resources of a Catholic perspective for the Enlightenment Era?

Thank you!

Hello!

I could not find any sources from actual Catholic websites, but I did find some things concerning the Church and the Enlightenment (not from a Catholic perspective, but from a objective historical perspective). This secular source has to do with the theology of the Catholic Church and it summarizes how it conflicted with some Enlightenment ideas.

What I did find interesting is the idea of the Catholic Enlightenment:

For it is an undeniable historical fact that the Catholic Church had its own enlightenment, and that many Catholic leaders led the way in human reform and progress.

[Numerous scholars] “worked tirelessly to demonstrate that Catholicism and Enlightenment, faith and reason, progress and religion, were not incompatible.” The result is that fifty years after Gay’s influential work, “there has been a dramatic change in perspective. Today, historians recognize that only a small fraction of Enlighteners were anti-religious; the overwhelming majority of them were interested in finding a balance between faith and reason.”

n seven thematically-oriented chapters, [the scholar Lehner] discusses the Catholic thinkers who led the way in promoting religious freedom and tolerance, defended women, combated superstition, fought slavery, and welcomed advances in Biblical scholarship, science, economics and the arts. Of course, their criticisms and proposals weren’t always welcomed by other Catholics, but their views eventually found favor with the reform-minded Popes, and were integrated into Catholic teaching.

You can find much more about how the Church and various Catholic individuals (especially clergy!) started and further developed the Enlightenment in Europe here: firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/03/the-catholic-enlightenment-yesterday-and-today

 

[PraiseChrist]

Thank you very much. This is very, very helpful.

I also found some information about St Alphonsus Liguori and the Enlightenment:
ewtn.com/library/MARY/birthalphons.htm