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Section 4
THE CHURCH IN THE MODERN ERA
Section 4, Part 1:
THE CHURCH IN THE AGE OF REASON
AND REVOLUTION
Introduction
• Medieval Period—Church, faith, & God were first in people’s lives
• Renaissance—human abilities & contributions began to be valued as sources of
goodness under humanism; slowly process began of replacing God as source
• Age of Reason (Enlightenment)—17th & 18th centuries (focus of Part 1) during
which God is marginalized especially through philosophy brought lasting changes
to Europe, some positive but at great costs, especially the French Revolution
• Three articles
• (A. 35) – The Age of Reason
• (A. 36) – The French Revolution
• (A. 37) – Effects of the Enlightenment
& the French Revolution
Article 35: The Age of Reason
•Renaissance, Reformations, & nationalism made possible a new way of thinking about
religion, monarchy, & individual rights known as the Age of Reason or Enlightenment
•Two main fruits of the Enlightenment
• Rationalism
• Rise of learning thru science & mathematics in the 17th & 18th centuries
• E.g. Blaise Paschal & Isaac Newton—the concrete was exalted
because observable & quantifiable
• Scientific explanations of the universe based on reason began
to replace ones based on faith & mystery
• Led to the idea that all truth is determined by human reason (defn.)
even human laws (natural law too?)
• If God existed, only as the Creator not personally
—deism—so natural rights became topic of focus
Article 35 cont.: The Age of Reason
•Two main fruits of the Enlightenment cont.
• Rationalism cont.
• Voltaire’s (Candide)—religious satire
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s (On the Social Contract)—political
treatise on democracy & empowerment
• Rene Descartes’ (Passions of the Soul; Principles of Philosophy
--“Cogito ergo sum”)—human emotions & doubt
• Empiricism
• Logical conclusion of rationalism—all knowledge comes thru
experience, especially through the senses (defn.)
• Like rationalists, split on existence of God but not on the essence of God—deism
Article 35 cont.: The
Age of Reason
• Empiricism cont.
• John Locke’s (An Essay Concerning
Human Understanding) & Isaac
Newton’s (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy)
• David Hume’s (A Treatise of Human Nature & Dialogues
Concerning Natural Religion)
•CCC 50 on the relationship between Natural & Divine Revelation
• Corollaries: relationship between faith & reason; as well as
experience, science, philosophy, & theology
• The case of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)—Italian astronomer who
agreed with Copernicus (1473-1543) that the earth rotated
around the sun not vice versa; excommunicated by Pope
Urban VIII (1628-1644) but pardoned by John Paul II in 1992
You Tube Videos: The Age of Reason
The Enlightenment
Rationalism vs. Empiricism
*You Tube Videos: The Age of Reason
Galileo Galilei
Fr. Barron: Faith and Reason
Homework
•Read A. 36 in the e-Book for discussion Monday
•Section 4, Part 1 review questions 1-2
Article 36: The French Revolution
•Medieval belief that monarchs were endowed w/ divine authority to rule was toppled during the
Enlightenment & replaced with Rousseau’s ideas—citizens empower government to protect rights
•Meant revolution in France where Church-monarchy stronghold was holding on
• King Louis XVI called the French Parliament (3 Estates) to Versailles in May of 1789 to solve economic crisis
• Commoners who composed 3rd Estate called for reforms of the monarchy & 1st 2 Estates (clergy & nobility)
• June 19 clergy sided with the peasants in giving up tithes & tax free status; king asked Estates to leave but no
• King hired mercenaries to defend absolutism; July 14 Bastille was stormed beginning French Revolution
• In August the National Assembly was formed & passed Declaration of the Rights of Man & of the Citizen
• Individual & collective rights are universal so religious toleration
• Strangely (for 2 reasons) but understandably revolution turned against the Church
• In November, Church property confiscated & sold, clergy & religious were exiled, vows & orders suppressed
• In July 1790 Civil Constitution of the Clergy was passed
—subordinated Church to French government
• In November 1791, National Assembly require French clergy to take oath
recognizing constitution
• Pope Pius VI (1775-1799) condemned the constitution & the revolutionary
principles in 1791 in Quod aliquantum—2 churches in France
Article 36 cont.: The French Revolution
•In January of 1793 the king was beheaded & the Reign of Terror ensued—mass executions,
new calendar (feast days replaced with holidays of reason & liberty), new dogma (immortality
of the soul), new moral (do ones duty), new god in Notre Dame (goddess of reason)
•Revolution leaders killed one another off by 1795 & Directory set up & reversed some
of the anti-Christian laws until 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte took power through
a military coup—restored Church rights for selfish reasons
•Concordat with Pope Pius VII (1800-1823)—pope
appoints French bishops but no property returned
•In 1808 Napoleon imprisoned Pius VII & confiscated Papal States
•European conglomeration defeated him in 1814, freed pope, returned
Papal States, & briefly restored a limited form of the French monarchy
You Tube Videos: The French Revolution
Crash Course: The French Revolution
The French Revolution in a Nutshell
Homework
•Read A. 37 in the e-Book for discussion tomorrow
•Section 4, Part 1 review questions 3-4
Article 37: The Effects of the Enlightenment
& the French Revolution
•Obvious conclusion is that no good could possibly come from
Enlightenment or French Revolution
•If Christopher Dawson was right that the Enlightenment was
“the last great European heresy” then we should find some fruit
like earlier heresies bore—clarify & strengthen doctrine & discipline
•St. John Paul II said it bore not only revolution but liberty, equality,
fraternity, human rights, national existence, political sovereignty, &
the abolition of feudalism too
• Direct implication for American war for independence,
U.S. Constitution, & Catholic Social Doctrine
•19th century renewal of the Church in France due to the
persecutions of the 17th and 18th centuries
•New & renewed forms of piety, devotion, worship, art,
architecture, & music to glorify God
•Rise in vocations to the clerical & religious life
Article 37 cont.: The Effects of the
Enlightenment & the French Revolution
•Reestablishment of suppressed religious orders
• Jesuits in 1814 (since 1773) under Pius VII &
doubled under Pius IX (1846-1878)
• Sisters of St. Joseph in 1807 after being founded in
the 17th & suppressed in the 18th—to St. Louis in 1830
•Establishment of new religious orders
• Marists (Society of Mary) in 1816 & The
Congregation of Our Lady of Zion in 1843
•Saints who lived lives of personal holiness that inspired others
• St. John Vianney (1786-1859) diocesan pastor in Ars, France
• St. Catherine Laboure (1806-1876) religious Daughters of
Charity; visions of Mary led to the Miraculous Medal
• St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897) Carmelite who developed
the little way of love in Story of a Soul; doctor/missionary
You Tube Videos: The Effects of the
Enlightenment & French Revolution in France
St. John Vianney
St. Catherine Laboure & The
Miraculous Medal
You Tube Videos: The Effects of the
Enlightenment & French Revolution in France
Fr. Barron: St. Therese of Lisieux
The Suppression of the Jesuits
The Restoration of the Jesuits
Homework
•Section 4, Part 1 review
questions 5-6
•Make sure the Section 4, Part 1 review
questions are ready to turn in tomorrow #’s 1-6
•Study for the Section 4, Part 1 quiz tomorrow
or Monday based on class decision