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Condemned Light

Hubert Wolf

Catholicism and Enlightenment

Popes have condemned the enlightenment as heresy. Key figures of the enlightenment, like Voltaire, wanted to destroy the church. Conciliatory attempts to enlighten Catholicism were rejected as ‘errors of the time’. In masterful case studies, Hubert Wolf shows up the depths of the epochal rift and the reasons why a Catholic enlightenment is resisted even today.

When ‘Western values’ are invoked, Christianity and enlightenment are often named alongside each other to score points against other religions. The rhetorical move leaves out the story of the Vatican’s vicious resistance against the enlightenment all the way into the twentieth century. Hubert Wolf elucidates why popes were more afraid of democracy and enlightenment than they were of Rome friendly dictatorships, and how Catholic laymen fought for their empowerment, enlightened theologians for their emancipation from Rome and democratic politicians for their Catholic faith. In recent decades the Church has revised its militant opposition to enlightenment values, acknowledged trauma, and opened up to scrutiny. And yet democracy and enlightenment are no matter of course. Wolf’s impassioned account shows Catholicism its own troubled history with the enlightenment in order to finally reconcile the two. 

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Published by C.H.Beck , ISBN: 9783406741074

Main content page count: 352 Pages

ISBN: 9783406741074