European Languages and Societies Commons^™

2. John Wesley And Evangelical Methodism, Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold L. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, W. Richard Schubart

Section XII: The Post-Enlightenment Period

The Enlightenment had, it is true, appeared to solve many problems by ridding Western Civilization of medieval superstitions of all sorts. It disproved miracles. It denied the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. It denounced intolerance and persecution. But it did not,immediately answer the question of what was to be put in the place of the things it had thrown out. The ideas and institutions it denounced had given society certain ideals of conduct, standards of thought, and objects of belief, inadequate as they may have been. The immediate problem was: What was to reglace them? [excerpt]