RS 350 Religious Thought in The Enlightenment

 

Professor James Byrne

 

Fall 2002: Tuesdays 2.20-5.20pm

 

 

 

 

Books Required:

1. J. Byrne, Religion and the Enlightenment: From Descartes to Kant, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1997. An extensive bibliography on the Enlightenment can be found at the back of this book.

2. Isaac Kramnick, The Portable Enlightenment Reader [TPER]

3. Blaise Pascal, Pensées.

4. Voltaire, The Portable Voltaire [TPV] Resources for studying Candide http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/candide/

 

Assessment

 

Assessment for the module is as follows:

· One 4-5 page paper on the Pensées of Pascal (20%).

· One 4-5 page paper on Voltaire’s attitude towards religion (20%).

· One 8 page paper on a topic of your choice to be determined in consultation with the professor (40%).

· 4 classroom reports/presentations with a short response paper (1-2 pages) (20%).

o The schedule for the presentations will be set at the beginning of the semester. I encourage you to meet with me to discuss your presentations.

There are no exams for this course.

 

 

Course Organization

The 3-hour weekly session will be a mixture of input from me, short presentations from you on the reading, group discussion, general question and answer sessions, etc. Taking this course will not be a passive experience. You will not be forced to speak, but you should be ready to discuss ideas with others members of the class.

Weekly reading: you are expected to come to class with the weekly reading already done; each week you should bring with you some indication that you have done the reading (e.g. a page summarizing the main points of the reading as you understand it, plus any questions, problems or issues which the reading raised for you).

Reading philosophical or hisTORRical texts: you should be prepared to spend time reading philosophical or hisTORRical texts; this means reading something many times in order to try to understand the meaning of individual passages, sentences and even words. It takes time and effort for ideas to sink in but the effort is worth it in the end.

Course Aims:

To study religious thought in the Enlightenment, covering the period 1650 to 1800 (approx.), with the aim of examining critically the relevant movements, ideas and intellectual conflicts of the time.

Course Objectives:

By the end of the module you should be able to:

understand and comment critically upon the religious, philosophical, cultural and political context of the Enlightenment;

demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the thought of the period through the study of original texts and secondary sources;

understand the emergence of alternative world-views to those of mainstream Christianity (e.g. materialism, deism, scientific rationalism);

analyze and evaluate the critique of religion which characterized the period, e.g. skepticism, atheism, etc;

appreciate the origins of some aspects of modern thought as a response to questions raised during the Enlightenment.

 

 

 

COURSE OUTLINE

All reading is mandaTORRy and should be done before the weekly class.

Reading indicated in italics is not mandaTORRy but should be done if possible.

WEEK

DATE

TOPICS AND REQUIRED READING
     

1.

9/3

· Introduction. HisTORRical Context and Background

   

· Kant in TPER p. 1 (in class reading)

· Franklin in TPER p. 166 (in class reading)

     

2.

9/10

· The Enlightenment Ideal

   

· Byrne Chapters 1 & 2

· Diderot in TPER p. 17

· Dumarsais in TPER p. 21

· Turgot in TPER p. 361

     

3.

9/17

· Descartes and Locke: Rationalism and Empiricism.

   

· Byrne Chapter 3

· Locke in TPER p. 185

· Locke in TPER 222

· Voltaire, ‘Locke’ in TPV, p. 536

· Descartes in TPER p. 181

     

4.

9/24

· Pascal’s Critique of Reason and Defense of Religion

   

· Byrne Chapter 4

· Marvin O’Connell, Reasons of the Heart (on reserve)

· Pascal: extracts from the Pensées

· Extracts from The Provincial Letters (on reserve)

     

5.

10/1

· Deism and Religious Toleration.

   

· Byrne Chapter 5

· Bayle in TPER p. 75

· Locke in TPER p. 81

· Priestley in TPER 155

· Montesquieu in TPER p. 106

· Newton in TPER pp. 96.-97

· Text of Hayden’s Creation (handout in class)

     

6.

10/8

· Voltaire

   

· Candide in TPV

· The Lisbon Earthquake in TPV, pp. 560f

· As many extracts as you can read from The Philosophical Dictionary in TPV

 

 

 

     

7.

10/15

· Skepticism and Atheism.

   

· Byrne Chapter 6

· D’Holbach in TPER 140

· Voltaire in TPER pp. 125-131

· La Mettrie in TPER p. 202

· Gibbon in TPER p. 150

 

No class on October 15 – Columbus Day Weekend.

8.

10/22

· Science and Religion.

   

· Byrne Chapter 7

· Priestley in TPER p. 69

· Franklin in TPER p. 73

· Bacon in TPER p. 39

     

9.

10/29

· Human Nature

   

· Byrne Chapter 8

· Rousseau in TPER p.229 & p. 363

· Helvetius in TPER pp. 293-297

· Priestley in TPER p. 382

     

10.

11/5

· Women in the Enlightenment.

   

· Chapter on gender in Dorinda Outram’s The Enlightenment (on reserve)

· Rousseau in TPER p. 568

· Macauley-Graham in TPER p. 591

· Paine in TPER p. 586

· Priestley in TPER p. 235

     

11.

11/19

· Kant’s Religious Thought

   

· Byrne, Chapter 9 and handouts on Kant

· Kant in TPER p. 297

· Re-read Kant’s ‘What is Enlightenment?’

 

No Class on November 26: American Academy of Religion Annual Convention

12.

12/3

· The Limitations of Enlightenment: The Question of Race (+ Mozart and the Enlightenment).

   

· Encyclopedia Britannica in TPER p. 669

· Extracts on race from Hume, Kant, Diderot, Long and Paine in TPER Part 5, ‘Gender and Race’

· The Music of Mozart (handout)

     

13.

12/10

· Politics and Religion: The American and French Revolutions and Their Aftermath.

   

· Paine in TPER p. 442 & p. 469

· American Declaration of Independence in TPER p. 448

· French Declaration on The Rights of Man, TPER p. 466

· The Temple of Reason in TPER p. 168

· Jefferson in TPER 160

· Extracts from May, The Enlightenment in America (on reserve)