Enlightenment
Enlightenment
()
Enlightenment is the intellectual and moral effect produced in the spiritual experience of believers by the reception of the Christian revelation. Objectively, it is called the light (, Revised Version margin illumination) of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2Co 4:6). The gospel is God calling us out of darkness into his marvellous light (1Pe 2:9). In the Fourth Gospel Christ claims to be the light of the world, (Joh 8:12; Joh 9:5). Even before His Incarnation, as the Divine Logos, He is said to have been the informing principle of both life and truth within humanity, the true light which lighteth () every man (Joh 1:9). Subjectively, specific Christian enlightenment arises in the consciousness of those who actually embrace the truth revealed in the person, teaching, and work of the historic Christ. It is no mere intellectual illumination whereby abstract or doctrinal truth is understood. St. Paul regards it as a gift of spiritual insight into the Divine nature and redemptive purposes. It is Gods bestowal of a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; it is having the eyes of your heart enlightened () that ye may know (Eph 1:17 f.). This spiritual insight manifests itself in action. It has ethical as well as intellectual results. The fruit of the light ( ) is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth; hence the enlightened walk as children of light (Eph 5:8 f.). St. Paul calls his early converts sons of light, , and concludes, Let us, since we are of the day, be sober (1Th 5:5; 1Th 5:8).
Two passages in Hebrews (Heb 6:1-5; Heb 10:32), which presuppose this enlightenment, call for special attention because they have been thought to contain reference to baptism on the one hand, and to the pagan Mysteries on the other. That there is some allusion to baptism in Heb 6:4 is quite probable, for the two expressions, once enlightened, and made partakers of the Holy Ghost, correspond respectively to the preceding expressions in v. 2, teaching of baptisms and laying on of hands. As instruction in Christian truth formed part of the preparation of catechumens for baptism, the rite itself attested the enlightenment resulting there-from. It is a well-known fact that the terms baptism and enlightenment soon after apostolic times became synonymous. Syriac versions of the NT render the word enlightened in both Heb 6:4 and Heb 10:32 by baptized. As early as Justin Martyr 150 enlightenment had become a recognized term for baptism. In his Apology (i. 61), after speaking of baptism as a new birth (), Justin says: And this washing is called enlightenment ( ) because those who learn these things [i.e. the Christian teaching] have their understanding enlightened. He also, in the same passage, calls the recently baptized the newly enlightened. Later patristic writers, understanding enlightened in Heb 6:4 to mean baptized, inferred from the expression, those who were once (, once for all) enlightened it is impossible to renew, that it was inadmissible to rebaptize, while the Montanists and Novatians went so far as to deny the possibility of absolution for those who sinned after baptism, holding that baptism in the blood of martyrdom alone would avail in the case of flagrant sin.
In reference to the Mysteries, it may be said to be probable that the term enlightened, occurring in these two passages, is one of the many NT words which reproduce the phraseology made current by these pagan cults. In Heb 6:1-5 enlightened occurs among quite a number of other terms or ideas which were current in connexion with the Mysteries. For instance, perfection (), or full growth (Revised Version margin), was the technical term for the state of the fully initiated ( ) into one or other of these cults. The mention of baptisms in this connexion reminds us that the Mysteries also had lustrations among their initiatory rites. The twice-mentioned tasting suggests the symbolic tasting and eating in the pagan ceremonies. The expressions made partakers of the Holy Ghost and tasting the powers of the age to come recall the fact that the ideas of a possible participation in the Divine nature and a future life were central in the symbolism of all the Mysteries, however crudely or even repulsively set forth. A. S. Carman draws attention (Bibliotheca Sacra, vol. 1. [1893]) to the use made by the NT of terminology drawn from the Mysteries. G. Anrich contends (Das antike Mysterienwesen, 1893) that no direct dependence of Christianity upon the Mysteries could be established. A more complete knowledge of the nature and diffusion of mystery-cults in apostolic times, together with the recognition of additional terms in the NT vocabulary drawn from them, makes it easier to accept the recent opinion of Clemen (Primitive Christianity and its non-Jewish Sources, 1912, p. 345) concerning Heb 6:4 that the expression , which also occurs in Heb 10:32 and then in Eph 1:18; Eph 3:9, 2Ti 1:10, is borrowed from the language of the Mysteries: and this is the more probable seeing that in the Mysteries there was also a sacred meal, and in Heb 6:4 tasting and enlightened are associated.
In relation to the dependence which the NT shows in this subject, as in others, upon both the phraseology and religious ideas of earlier and lower cults, it must be borne in mind that a richer and fuller content has been poured by Christianity into those pagan forms of expression, and that here, as in the case of the Jewish Law, Christ came not to destroy, but to fulfil.
Literature.-On the relation of enlightenment to baptism in Heb 6:4; Heb 10:32 see Comm. of B. F. Westcott, F. W. Farrar, A. B. Davidson, A. S. Peake, E. C. Wickham, and article Baptism (Early Christian) by Kirsopp Lake in Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics . On the connexion between Christianity aniline Mysteries generally see, in addition to works mentioned above, S. Cheetham, The Mysteries, Pagan and Christian, 1897; R. Reitzenstein, Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen, 1910; P. Gardner, The Religious Experience of Saint Paul, 1911, ch. iv. on The Pauline Mystery; H. A. A. Kennedy, St. Paul and the Mystery-Religions, 1913; articles by W. M. Ramsay on Mysteries in Encyclopaedia Britannica 9 and Religion of Greece and Asia Minor in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) , vol. v. p. 109; articles on Mystery by A. Stewart in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) , by G. A. Jlicher in Encyclopaedia Biblica , and by B. W. Bacon in Dict. of Christ and the Gospels . See also A. Loisys article The Christian Mystery in HJ [Note: J Hibbert Journal.] , Oct. 1911.
M. Scott Fletcher.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
Enlightenment
SEE ILLUMINATI.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Enlightenment
When Kant, carried by the cultural enthusiasm of his time, explained “enlightenment” as man’s coming of age from the state of infancy which rendered him incapable of using his reason without the aid of others, he gave only the subjective meaning of the term. Objectively, enlightenment is a cultural period distinguished by the fervent efforts of leading personalities to make reason the absolute ruler of human life, and to shed the light of knowledge upon the mind and conscience of any individual. Such attempts are not confined to a particular time, or nation, as history teaches; but the term is generally applied to the European enlightenment stretching from the early 17th to the beginning of the 19th century, especially fostered by English, Dutch, French, and German philosophers. It took its start in England from the empiricism of F. Bacon, Th. Hobbes, J. Locke, it found a religious version in the naturalism of Edw. H. Cherbury, J. Toland, M. Tindal, H. Bolingbroke, and the host of “freethinkers”, while the Earl of Shaftesbury imparted to it a moral on the “light of reason”. Not so constructive but radical in their sarcastic criticism of the past were the French enlighteners, showing that their philosophy got its momentum from the moral corruption at the royal court and abuse of kinglv power in France. Descartes’ doctrine of the “clear and perspicuous ideas,” Spinoza’s critical attitude towards religion, and Leibniz-Wolff’s “reasonable thinking” prepared the philosophy of P. Bayle, Ch. Montesquieu, F. M. Voltaire, and J. J. Rousseau. The French positive contribution to the subject was the “Encyclopedie ou Dictionaire raisonne des sciences, arts et metiers”, 1751-72, in 28 volumes, edited by Diderot, D’Alembert, Helvetius, Holbach, J. L. Lagrane, etc. What, in England and France, remained on the stage of mere ideas and utopic dreams became reality in the new commonwealth of the U.S.A. The “fathers of the constitution” were enlightened, outstanding among them B. Franklin, Th. Jefferson, J. Adams, A. Hamilton, and Th. Paine their foremost literary propagandist.
In Germany, the movement was initiated by G. W. Leibniz whose writings reveal another motive for the cult of pure reason, i.e. the deep disappointment with the Reformation and the bloody religious wars among Christians who were accused of having forfeited the confidence of man in revealed religion. Hence the outstanding part played by the philosophers of ”natural law”, Grotius, S. Pufendorf, and Chr. Thomasius, their theme being advanced by the contributions to a “natural religion” and tolerance by Chr. Wolff, G. E. Lessing, G. Herder, and the Prussian king Frederik II. Fr. v. Schiller’s lyric and dramas served as a powerful commendation of ideal freedom, liberty, justice, and humanity. A group of educators (philanthropists) designed new methods and curricula for the advancement of public education, many of them, eg. Pestalozzi, Basedow, Cooper, A. H. Francke, and Fr. A. Wolf, the father of classic humanism, having achieved international recognition. Although in general agreement with th philosophical axioms of foreign enlighteners, the German philosophy decidedly opposed the English sensism (Hume) and French scepticism, and reached its height in Kant’s Critiques. The radical rationalism, however, combined with its animosity against religion, brought about strong philosophical, theological, and literal opposition (Hamann, Jacobi, Lavater) which eventually led to its defeat. The ideals of the enlightenment period, the impassioned zeal for the materialization of the ideal man in an ideal society show clearly that it was basically related to the Renaissance and its continuation. See Aufklrung. Cf. J. G. Hibben, The Philosophy of the Enlightenment, 1910. — S.v.F.