We Were Never Modern

Carl Becker ( The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers ) writes that though the Philosophes were devoted to reason, “a skeptical lot, atheists in effect if not by profession, addicted to science and the scientific method, always ready to crush the infamous, valiant defenders of liberty, equality, fraternity, freedom of speech, what you will,” yet they “were nearer the Middle Ages, less emancipated from the preconceptions of medieval Christian thought, than they quite realized or we have commonly supposed.”

He goes on:

“They denounced Christian philosophy, but rather too much, after the manner of those who are but half emancipated from the ‘superstition’ they scorn. They had put off the fear of God, but maintained a respectful attitude toward the Deity. They ridiculed the idea that the universe had been created in six days, but still believed it to be a beautifully crafted articulated machine designed by a Supreme Being according to a rational plan as an abiding place for mankind. The Garden of Eden was for them a myth, no doubt, but they looked enviously back to the golden age of Roman virtue, or across the waters to the unspoiled innocence of an Arcadian civilization that flourished in Pennsylvania. They renounced the authority of church and Bible, but exhibited a naive faith in the authority of nature and reason. They scorned metaphysics, but were proud to be called philosophers.”

In short, “there is more Christian philosophy in the writings of the Philosophes than has yet been dreamt of in our histories.”