Rola oświecenia chrześcijańskiego w kulturze wieku XVIII
The Role of the Christian Enlightenmentin the Culture of the Eighteenth Century

Summary/Abstract: This paper has been written in the spirit of the history of intellectual culture, and it discusses the problems of the specific ideological culture of the eighteenth century. Contrary to the influential views held by many historians who stress the dominant process of secularization in the culture of the Enlightenment, the paper indicates that despite rationalist elements Christianity remained an integral element of the culture of this epoch. By virtue of analyses conducted on the grounds of scientific culture and education, therefore the most fundamental tools of popularization of the then culture, we are entitled even to state that Christians inspiration was not only an essential, but actually basic point of reference for eighteenth-century culture. Thus in the spirit of the so-called long dura- tion (longue durée), underlined by contemporary historiography, the so-called religious enlightenment, above all Christian Enlightenment is not only a cultural fact, but it does make up the mainstream Enlightenment.

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