In this paper I will, first, summarize the key values of the Enlightenment, as found in the Portable Enlightenment Reader. ... " "Have courage to use your own reason - that is the motto of Enlightenment," Kant wrote in 1784" (XI). ... Individualism was also highly emphasized during the Enlightenment. ... Naturalism and materialism were two Enlightenment ideals that Hamann would not buy into. Hamann, unlike the relativists of the Enlightenment, believed in a single Truth, which came from God. ...

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• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Lit I Thomas Paine, Reasoning the Enlightenment In the first few lines of his argument against the church and state, Thomas Paine writes: "I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, Roman church, Greek church, Turkish church, Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. ... The problems that Paine has with the entire idea of Christianity are intricately exposed through Enlightenment ideals, particularly the Catholic ideal that beliefs in the supernatural should be considered over the greater good of reason. ... He uses another Enlightenment tool, mathematics, to de...

• Word Count: 1321
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

For example, in Buddhist Thailand, young men become sons of Buddha through a ceremony in which they reenact key parts of the historical Buddha's search for enlightenment (see Theravada Buddhism). ... Most major religions provide paths that deliver individuals from the bondage of sin, immorality, ignorance, and other types of impurity or disharmony and lead them toward a state of purity of soul, spiritual knowledge, wisdom, godliness, enlightenment, or even eternal life. ...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Augustine's Confessions is a personal recollection of his ascent from a life of sin and emptiness to one of fulfillment and higher understanding. He started his quest (from where we entered his voyage) rejecting God, but as his books are titled Confessions, Augustine begins to confess his sins and f...

• Word Count: 700
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In the second-century, the Christian Church strained for identity while being persecuted by the Roman authorities, confronted by Jewish and pagan hostility, and challenged by the internal dilemma of Gnostic adaptation. Gnostic sects arose not in direct opposition to the Orthodox Church, but with a h...

• Word Count: 2211
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Called by critics the "enemy of all religion," Jefferson attempted to reconcile Christianity with the Enlightenment.17 Frank Lambert rightly concluded that though the "free market of religion represented freedom from religion, others wanted a more positive arrangement, guaranteeing freedom of religion."18 The freedom from religion merely represented a lack of religion in government affairs, but the freedom of religion would set more people at ease. ...

• Word Count: 3342
• Approx Pages: 13
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate