Catholic Enlightenment

The most cherished values of modernity are unthinkable without the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. Equal rights, the end of discrimination, the growth of democracy, and the idea of perpetual progress stem from thinkers who lived two hundred and fifty years ago, but whose ideas are as attractive as ever. Yet how can Catholics connect to such ideas if they are told that tradition, rather than progress, is the key to unlocking life's greatest mysteries? Catholic beliefs are commonly assumed to be at odds with modernity, and Catholics are rarely thought of as active participants in the Enlightenment. In The Catholic Enlightenment, Ulrich Lehner argues that the root of most of the progressive reforms associated with the Enlightenment can be found in the Catholic counter-Reformation that took place two centuries earlier. The Council of Trent set in motion a number of ideas that would become central to the eighteenth century movement--individual freedom, an organized system of education, and promotion of new societal roles for women-though these ideas were not embraced everywhere, and not by all Catholics. Lehner tells the story of how Catholics of the eighteenth century grappled with these tensions, studying Catholic reformers across the globe who fought against the slave trade and supported religious tolerance and women's rights--even birth control--among a host of other causes. This is the forgotten story of an open-minded Catholicism, which was later snuffed out. It did not reemerge until the Second Vatican Council, and with the 2013 election of Pope Francis the time has come to bring the story to light.