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Intro 4b: Late Enlightenment Precursors to Religious Humanism

© Lynne H. Schultz

Deism lost influence in the United States in the aftermath of the French Revolution, and Protestantism was strengthened.

Also in the 18th century, 200 years after it was first founded in Transylvania, the Unitarian Church developed a worldview compatible with science, and able to evolve with new scientific discoveries. Unitarians in England were seeking a natural religion - one that yields to science as a way of gaining knowledge and instead focuses on ethics. Joseph Priestley, the scientist who discovered oxygen, had established a new Unitarian Church in Birmingham, but included as its guiding philosophy a version of Deism called Necessarianism. After he and his family were attacked by a mob and their home set on fire, they moved to Philadelphia. In 1796, Priestly established a Unitarian society there. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were already calling themselves Unitarians, by that time. Meanwhile Universalism rejected the doctrine of eternal punishment, but it would be another century until the Universalists adopted Unitarianism, and two centuries before both would eventually merge to form Unitarian Universalism.

Meanwhile, Hasidism, a sect of Judaism that rejects formal rituals and emphasizes inner conviction and good deeds, developed among Polish Jews. In his book Freethought Across the Centuries, Gerald Larue relates an Hasidic tale about Rabbi Moshe Lieb of Sasov who claimed that God has a purpose for everything. When asked why there are atheists, the Rabbi answered:

"There is no quality and there is no power of man that was created to no purpose...But what end can the denial of Go have been created? This too can be uplifted through deeds of charity. For if someone comes to you and asks you help, you shall not turn him away with pious words, saying: 'Have faith and take your trouble to God!' you shall act as if there were no God, and as if there were only one person in all the world who could help this man - only yourself."

Larue argues that the question reveals the presence of atheists within the Jewish community, and that the answer "echoes classical atheistic humanism". Humanistic tendencies among liberal Jews eventually led to their involvement in Ethical Culture movement of the 19th century as well as the formation of Humanistic Judaism in the 20th century.

The Quakers, Deists, Iroquois, Unitarians and Hasidic Jews all had influence over the development of the Religious Humanism that was to form later. Next month's part 5 will discuss Enlightenment influences on Secular Humanism including: the Encyclopediasts, Philosophes, Materialists, Pantheists, Empiricists, Skeptics, and the Democrats.