How Did The Enlightenment Change

Change The Enlightenment movement in Western Europe is one of the most studied movements in history. That being said there are many different ideas about just what the Enlightenment was intended to do. In his book, The Intellectual Origins of the French Enlightenment, Ira Wade argues that, “The Enlightenment did not attempt to develop a new body of teachings, though, nor did it seek a new dogma. […] It is a manner of thinking [….] It functions in every enterprise in which the human being is engaged, and by its manner of thinking, it aims to change the common way of thinking and doing. Thus Enlightenment thought carries within itself powers of destruction as well as powers of construction” (Wade, 92). Although, Wade does make some good
In doing this I will demonstrate that the point of the Enlightenment was to create a new dogma and a new body of teaching. The Lisbon Earthquake was a major tragedy which not only took the lives of many, but led people at the time to questions the very beliefs that they have always held so dear. Even though some tried to rationalize the earthquake as God exercising his divine power, many of the Enlightenment thinkers took this opportunity to show that the current dogma, of the time, as well as the body of teaching had some unexplainable holes. As mentioned before many induviduals attempted to try and rationalize the earthquake as a reminder of God’s ultimate power such as Gabriel Malagrida, in an opinion on the true cause of the earthquake, when he writes, “It is scandalous to pretend the earthquake was just a natural event, for if that be true, there is no need to repent and to try to avert the wrath of God, and not even the Devil himself could invent a false idea more likely to lead us all to irreparable ruin” (Malagrida,72). Malagrida was a missionary who actually was imprisoned after his claims about the Lisbon earthquake and ultimately executed for blasphemy. This being