The Moral Culture of the Scottish Enlightenment: 1690-1805
Thomas Ahnert
Abstract
In the European Enlightenments it was often argued that moral conduct rather than adherence to certain theological doctrines was the true measure of religious belief. This book shows that the characteristically “enlightened” emphasis on conduct in religion was less reliant on arguments from reason alone than is commonly believed. In fact, the champions of the Scottish Enlightenment were deeply skeptical of the power of unassisted natural reason in achieving “enlightened” virtue and piety. They advocated a practical program of “moral culture,” in which revealed religion was of central importanc ... More
Keywords: Enlightenment, Natural Religion, Christianity, Moral Culture, Moral Philosophy, Scotland, Eighteenth Century, Moderates, Orthodoxy, Presbyterianism
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2015 | Print ISBN-13: 9780300153804 |
| Published to Yale Scholarship Online: May 2015 | DOI:10.12987/yale/9780300153804.001.0001 |
