Is Christianity Against the Enlightenment?

At the zenith of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, a totalitarian party remembered as the “Jacobins” forged a powerful centralized state, launched the Reign of Terror, implemented a “Cult of Reason” as the official state religion, publicly beheaded and drowned countless Christians as part of a national program of “dechristianization,” and committed the first modern genocide—targeting the intransigent Catholic population of the Vendee. Despite its anti-Christian character, the Enlightenment has been so influential that present-day Christians themselves often operate within an unconscious framework of Enlightenment assumptions. Carmen and Ian discuss a few examples.