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01: Religion and Modernity

Modernity brought new views of knowledge and reality and new methods of inquiry, allowing Western thinkers unprecedented freedom to criticize religion and even to question the existence of God. Learn how this ushered in a tension between faith and suspicion that has endured as a major dynamic of Western religious thought.

32 min

02: From Suspicion to the Premodern Cosmos

Learn how Friedrich Nietzsche's 1882 picture of a meaningless cosmos marked a high point of the modern conflict between faith and suspicion, offering a stark contrast to the once-dominant conception of the Christian cosmos reflected most clearly in the work of the medieval period's major Christian thinker, Thomas Aquinas.

29 min

03: From Catholicism to Protestantism

Nietzsche was far from the first challenge posed to Aquinas, as you learn in this examination of the theological, social, and cultural conflicts that began to loosen Catholicism's hold on Europe as early as the 14th century, ultimately paving the way for Martin Luther's radical new Christian vision.

33 min

04: Scientific Revolution and Descartes

Watch modernity begin with the arrival of the Protestant Reformation, which brought not only religious wars and challenges to established social structures but also a Scientific Revolution and radical new ideas about the cosmos. These changes inspired thinkers like Rene Descartes to reconsider the nature of intellectual authority.

30 min

05: Descartes and Modern Philosophy

Grasp how Descartes' efforts to find new foundations for knowledge led him to make sharp distinctions between reason and revelation, philosophy and theology, and make him, for many, the first truly modern philosopher.

31 min

06: Enlightenment and Religion

The Enlightenment produced thinkers who embraced a natural, universal human reason they saw as promising freedom from the past and tradition. See how thinkers like John Locke presented religion with modernity's first great challenge: Can religion be rational?

31 min

07: Natural Religion and Its Critics

The Enlightenment idealization of reason created its own debates. You learn to contrast the "rationalism" of Descartes with knowledge's origins found in innate ideas with the "empiricism" of thinkers like David Hume and Denis Diderot, who argued that knowledge must be grounded in the evidence of our senses.

32 min

08: Kant—Religion and Moral Reason

Follow Immanuel Kant's reasoning as he seeks a way beyond the rational-empirical impasse with a "critical philosophy" that claims knowledge is based not in the passive reception of sense impressions, but rather in the mind's active organization of them. From this perspective on the nature of human knowledge, we can never know God, but we can rationally postulate God's existence.

31 min

09: Kant, Romanticism, and Pietism

Kant's revolutionary ideas were extremely influential and remain so today, but they raised many questions for 19th-century religious thinkers dissatisfied by the idea of God as "postulate." You examine the alternatives offered by two radically different schools of thought.

33 min

10: Schleiermacher—Religion and Experience

Often called the father of modern theology, Friedrich Schleiermacher was deeply influenced not only by Kant, but also by Romantic and pietist views of religious experience. You grasp his defense of religion as being grounded in a "sense," "intuition," or "feeling" of the whole of the universe.

33 min

11: Hegel—Religion, Spirit, and History

Learn how the views of Schleiermacher and Kant were challenged by those of G. W. F. Hegel, which stressed our conceptual, not just experiential, knowledge of God and sought to overcome the static rationalism of the Enlightenment. Hegel argued that history was the process by which Absolute Spirit, or God, empties itself in creation and then comes to self-consciousness in humans.

30 min

12: Theology and the Challenge of History

Some Enlightenment thinkers had questioned whether historical events such as miracles could help prove religions; others had begun to study the Bible as a historical document. As historical consciousness achieved dominance in the 19th century, you see how a new set of challenges emerged for religious thinkers.

29 min

13: 19th-Century Christian Modernists

You encounter ways in which the challenges of Enlightenment philosophy and modern historical studies were met by a variety of 19th-century Christian modernists. These include Protestants Horace Bushnell and Albrecht Ritschl, the Anglican Oxford movement, and the Tubingen school of Catholic thought.

31 min

14: 19th-Century Christian Antimodernists

In contrast to liberals and modernists, many Catholic and Protestant thinkers viewed modernity with suspicion. You learn how Catholic antimodernists were successful in increasing papal authority and establishing Aquinas's ideas as foundational, while Protestant resistance took shape in evangelica (especially fundamentalist) ideas.

33 min

15: Judaism and Modernity

Step to the other side of the Judeo-Christian tradition to learn how modernity was challenging Jewish thinkers just as it had their Christian contemporaries. And grasp how the distinctiveness of Jewish history (including marginalization and persecution) shaped Jewish thought in different ways, as seen in the 18th-century writings of Moses Mendelssohn and the later work of Herman Cohen.

30 min

16: Kierkegaard's Faith

Ultimately as influential as Kant, Schleiermacher, and Hegel, the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard attacked modern efforts to make Christianity "reasonable." You learn how Kierkegaard instead emphasized that faith is only realized in the passionate commitment of the "existing," not just the thinking, person.

30 min

17: Kierkegaard's Paradox

Continue your introduction to Kierkegaard in his "Philosophical Fragments," seeing how he presents faith as a gift from God that, paradoxically, can never be accepted by reason, no matter how diligently reason tries to "grasp" it.

31 min

18: 19th-Century Suspicion and Feuerbach

You are introduced to the work of Ludwig Feuerbach, one of the major 19th-century critics of Christianity. Unlike Enlightenment critics attacking religion's supposed irrationality, Feuerbach sought to "unmask" the way religion prevents us from grappling with the reality of life.

30 min

19: Marx—Religion as False Consciousness

Not everyone agreed with Feuerbach that the power of thought was enough to change human life. Here you see how Karl Marx argued for a more materialistic interpretation of religion and culture, portraying religion as a symptom of a human alienation grounded in social and economic structures.

31 min

20: Nietzsche and the Genealogy of Morals

Friedrich Nietzsche was a critic of both religion and modernity. In examining his "On the Genealogy of Morals," you see the clearest expression of his view that the modern period is a culmination of the nihilistic "slave morality" at the heart of Judaism and Christianity.

32 min

21: Nietzsche—Religion and the Ascetic Ideal

Continuing Nietzsche's "Genealogy," you explore his presentation of a process by which "bad conscience" uses religion to increase feelings of guilt, ultimately culminating in Christianity and its "ascetic ideal," of which modern ideals of science and this-worldliness are but the latest stages of development.

29 min

22: Freud—Religion as Neurosis

Following along the "unmasking" trail blazed by Feuerbach, Sigmund Freud sought to expose religion from a psychological perspective. Here, you see faith presented as a "universal obsessional neurosis" born out of the Oedipal complex, with God as a wish fulfillment of the loving father able to forgive our hatred of him.

32 min

23: Barth and the End of Liberal Theology

Shaken by the brutality of World War I, Karl Barth published "Epistle to the Romans," launching 20th-century religious thought and rejecting the liberalism of the 19th century. He argued that the task of the religious thinker is one of "confession," acknowledging and reflecting on God's saving message.

32 min

24: Theology and Suspicion

Prior to Barth, those suspicious of religion saw it, in varying degrees, as a product of "false-consciousness." Learn in this lecture how Barth and subsequent thinkers like Paul Ricoeur began to integrate this into their analysis, acknowledging how religion can foster illusions and false, mystifying comforts, even as they affirmed the richness, value, and realism of genuine religious faith.

32 min

25: Protestant Theology after Barth

Examine the spectrum of Protestant theology after Barth, from the "correlational theology" that sought to reconcile human experience with Christian revelation to the evangelical ideas of the mid-20th century, which saw revelation as offering "fixed truths" and "moral absolutes" for all times.

32 min

26: 20th-Century Catholicism

In this sweeping examination, you learn that much of the Catholic theology of the 20th century was dedicated to overcoming the antimodernism instituted at the First Vatican Council in 1869—culminating in 1962's Vatican II—in spite of antimodernist views that continue to hold substantial power.

31 min

27: Modern Jewish Philosophy

Focus on the work of Martin Buber—who believed that so-called "I-You" relationships fostered contact with the divine—and that of Franz Rosenzweig, whose "New Thinking" focused on the revelatory encounter with God's love, through which one is released into "the flow of life."

32 min

28: Post-Holocaust Theology

With traditional monotheism holding that God is both omnipotent and benevolent, the problem of "theodicy"—explaining the existence of evil and the suffering of the innocent—has always been problematic. You explore the theological responses to what is perhaps history's most agonizing example.

29 min

29: Liberation Theology

Explore how Christian theologians and clergy developed "liberation theology" in response to poverty, colonialism, and an underdeveloped third world. Learn how their work has also influenced feminist and black theologies in Europe and the United States since the 1960s and has influenced a number of different religious traditions.

30 min

30: Secular and Postmodern Theologies

Increasing secularization has also challenged religious thought in recent decades, as you discover in this bracing look at the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the impact of philosophers such as Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, and Jacques Derrida on the work of contemporary thinkers like Mark C. Taylor and Gianni Vattimo.

31 min

31: Postmodernism and Tradition

For many, postmodernism offers a way to recover traditional elements of religion. Explore the ways in which this opportunity has been seized by different thinkers, including philosophers Emmanuel Levinas and Jean-Luc Marion, and theologians who use a "narrative" approach to understand God's revelation as the primary shaping force of life.

33 min

32: Fundamentalism and Islamism

This lecture focuses on two examples of the contemporary resurgence of fundamentalist religion around the world— Christianity in the United States and Islam in the Middle East—exploring the history of each and the way each manifests itself in the modern world.

31 min

33: New Atheisms

With the rise of the Christian Right and militant Islam has come a corresponding and vocal rise in various kinds of atheisms, many warning us of the irrationality and violence inherent in religion. You hear two of those voices as you examine the work of Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett.

31 min

34: Religion and Rationality

Gain important context for understanding that part of the debate that holds faith irrational by definition by exploring the variety of ways in which philosophers of religion approach this often-divisive relationship between religion and rationality.

32 min

35: Pluralisms—Religious and Secular

Enjoy a look at how some of today's most creative religious thinkers have approached one of their discipline's most provocative questions: How do you incorporate issues like pluralism, diversity, and tolerance when the religions you are studying contain claims of exclusive salvation or of being God's choice?

32 min

36: Faith, Suspicion, and Modernity

In concluding the course, you address the unavoidable point that the religious life does involve making claims about the nature of reality. Explore what those claims might be and the directions in which reasonable common ground between skepticism and belief might lie.

30 min

Overview Course No. 4670

For over a thousand years, the existence of God and the importance of religion had gone unquestioned in the Western world. But beginning in the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation and the Scientific Revolution began to erode the position of authority held by religion. A new willingness to confront religious authority and a new respect for reason and its accomplishments began to counter established ways of thinking based on revealed religious truth.

As a result, for the first time in human history, it had become possible to challenge faith as a fundamental truth - and to even question the very existence of God. This schism fundamentally changed the course of Western civilization, and it has had consequences that remain with us to this day. Noted scholar and Professor Tyler Roberts of Grinnell College leads you through a 36-lecture journey that will help you understand this challenging debate that has defined Western culture.

By gaining a richer understanding of the debate's key aspects - including the nature of the conflict, the meaning of the arguments, and what is at stake both philosophically and theologically - you can increase your understanding of both Western civilization's past and the direction of its future. It is one of the most intellectually satisfying plunges into philosophical and theological thought you will ever take.

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About

Tyler Roberts

Is religion so inherently intolerant that it will always be a source of violence in the world—or can religious faith be part of an intellectually vital, engaged, and realistic view of the world?

ALMA MATER

Harvard University

INSTITUTION

Grinnell College

Dr. Tyler Roberts is Professor of Religious Studies at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, where he teaches courses in religions of the Western world, modern religious thought, theory and method in the study of religion, and religion and politics. After earning his A.B. in Philosophy and Religion from Brown University, Professor Roberts studied philosophy at Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg, Germany, and religion at Harvard University, where he earned his M.T.S. and Th.D. at the Divinity School. His research interests include the intersection of religious and philosophical thought in the 19th and 20th centuries, the history and politics of the secular, and the nature and purpose of the academic study of religion. In 1998, he published Contesting Spirit: Nietzsche, Affirmation, Religion, which explores Nietzsche's criticisms of religion and Christianity. Since then he has published a number of essays in leading journals, including the Journal of the American Academy of Religion and The Journal of Religion. He also has published on philosophers such as Jacques Derrida, Slavoj Zizek, and Stanley Cavell. His second book, Encountering Religion in a Post-Secular Age, will be published by Columbia University Press.

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