Die donker kant van die Verligting

Abstract

The dark side of the Enlightenment

The complex concept “Enlightenment" was ambiguous, even in the time of its inception in the 18th century. As such, it was ambivalent, revealing a dialectical tension between rational-irrational, and Christian-antichristian. The sunny face of the Age of Reason is well known: its rational, scientific, and "Christian" side. Its other side - dark, irrational, and antichristian - is less often explicated While mentioning aspects of its irrationalism, its antichristian character forms the focal point of this article. The Enlightenment was "Christian" in the sense of formulating Christian truth simply a little more "rationally"; yet "antichristian” in the sense of trading in Christianity for classical culture. Voltaire is called as a witness to this tension, and especially to the antichristian nature of this epoch. Since the rise of the Enlightenment Protestant churches in particular have displayed a disturbing openness towards this movement, embracing its (essentially antichristian) scientific ideals to promote Christian truth. The results of this impossible synthesis are seen, among others, in the tension between theological lecture room (reason) and pulpit (faith), and in the Western churches' (often) uncertain witness to Biblical truth. The dead end in which the mainstream liberal Enlightenment theology finds itself, is illustrated by the contradictory statements of theologians during the past fo u r decades about angels - statements which incurred the contempt of natural scientists like Tipler, Weinberg and Feynman. To see the dark side of the Enlightenment is a challenge to believers (including theologians) to reconsider their allegiance to its scientific ideals and to rethink their position as witnesses to the truth, which is in Christ.