World Religions › Early modern
The Enlightenment and religion
c. 1685–1815· Belief or practice· New movements & secular thought
Historical recordConfirmed by archaeology, outside sources or contemporary records.
An intellectual movement in 17th–18th-century Europe that put reason and evidence above tradition, challenging church authority.
See it on the World Religions map →What it is
Inspired by Newton's science and weary of religious wars, thinkers questioned miracles, revelation and clerical power. Locke argued for toleration (1689); Spinoza read the Bible as a human document. Many, like Voltaire, Jefferson and Franklin, were deists, believing in a creator who does not intervene. Hume doubted miracles; a few, like d'Holbach, were outright atheists. Others, such as Moses Mendelssohn, founder of the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), sought to reconcile faith and reason. The movement inspired the American and French Revolutions.
Why it matters
It shaped religious freedom, separation of church and state, human rights and modern Bible scholarship, and began the long secularization of Western public life.
Sources and history
Published works such as Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration, Voltaire's writings and the Encyclopédie; censorship records; letters between thinkers; and founding documents like the US Bill of Rights.
Questions and debates
Historians debate whether the Enlightenment was anti-religious at heart, and how much it owed to the many Protestant, Catholic and Jewish thinkers who took part.
Inside this (1)
Connections (4)
▸Wars of religion and the Peace of Westphalia fed the skepticism of The Enlightenment and religionMostly agreed by scholars
The connection
Nearly a century of wars between Christians, fought partly over doctrine, left many educated Europeans doubting that any church should enforce belief. Pierre Bayle, John Locke and later Voltaire argued for toleration and reason over dogma. For many thinkers, the wars became the leading example of how religious certainty, joined to state power, causes harm.
When and where
Late 1600s–1700s in the Netherlands, England and France; partly a reaction to Louis XIV's revoking the Edict of Nantes in 1685.
How do we know?
Enlightenment writers cite the wars explicitly: Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) argues against persecution, and Voltaire repeatedly recalls the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.
Questions and debates
Some historians argue the 'wars of religion' story was partly a myth used to justify secular states, since politics drove much of the fighting.
▸The Enlightenment and religion championed Religious freedom and church–state separationHistorical record
The connection
Enlightenment thinkers argued that reason, not force, should govern belief. Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), Voltaire's Treatise on Tolerance (1763), and Jefferson and Madison in Virginia held that the state has no power over conscience. Their ideas became law in France's 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man, the Virginia Statute (1786) and the First Amendment (1791).
When and where
England, France and the American colonies, 1689–1791; Jefferson drafted the Virginia Statute in 1777, and Madison won its passage in 1786.
Historical evidence
The American founders cite Locke directly; Jefferson's 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists made famous the phrase 'wall of separation between church and state'.
Questions and debates
Historians debate how much credit goes to Enlightenment skeptics versus devout dissenters, such as Baptists and Roger Williams, who demanded freedom for religious reasons.
▸The Enlightenment and religion helped launch SecularizationMostly agreed by scholars
The connection
Enlightenment writers made reason and evidence, not church authority, the test of truth. Deists like Voltaire accepted a creator but rejected miracles and clerical power, and a few, like Baron d'Holbach, were openly atheist. Revolutionary France briefly attacked the Church outright. These ideas set the pattern of separating knowledge and government from religion.
When and where
Mainly France, Britain, the Netherlands and Germany, about 1685–1815, through salons, the Encyclopédie (1751–72) and revolutionary France's de-Christianization campaign of 1793–94.
How do we know?
Enlightenment texts argue for this shift directly; measurable decline in belief and churchgoing comes mostly later, in the 1800s and 1900s.
Questions and debates
Scholars debate whether secularization began with the Enlightenment or earlier with the Reformation; Charles Taylor and others argue Christianity itself shaped the secular age.
▸The Enlightenment and religion laid groundwork for Historical-critical Bible scholarshipMostly agreed by scholars
The connection
Enlightenment thinkers began reading the Bible like any other book. Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise (1670) doubted that Moses wrote the Torah; the French priest Richard Simon (1678) studied its sources; Hermann Reimarus privately questioned the Gospels, and Lessing published his fragments in 1774–78. Their methods became the basis of 19th-century Bible scholarship.
When and where
The Dutch Republic, France and Germany, 1670–1780: Spinoza in Amsterdam, Simon in Paris, Reimarus in Hamburg and Lessing in Wolfenbüttel.
How do we know?
The texts survive, and later critics, including Strauss, cite them directly; Spinoza's book was banned, showing how radical it seemed.
Questions and debates
Some scholars stress older roots, such as the medieval Jewish commentator Ibn Ezra's hints about Moses' authorship, which Spinoza himself cited.