In the aftermath of the wars of religion in the seventeenth century, the European continent underwent a theological paradigm shift. No longer was the CHURCH or the BIBLE a sufficient guide to truth. Instead, ENLIGHTENMENT thinkers looked beyond scripture and orthodox theology to a new and more rational basis for spiritual direction. As a general rule the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century did not devote a great deal of attention specifically to the doctrine of justification. Yet it did undermine the orthodox understanding inasmuch as it ignored or simply rejected one of the indispensable presuppositions of justification—the doctrine of original sin. Historically, one of the pillars of the Protestant orthodox conception of justification, whether Lutheran or Reformed (or even Catholic), was the fundamental presupposition that every person enters this world alienated from God because of original sin.
However, the exaltation of human reason and moral optimism so characteristic of the Enlightenment could not abide any doctrine of justification based on original sin, for such a doctrine violated both their tenets of rationality and morality. English thinkers such as JOHN TOLAND and JOHN LOCKE had little room for an orthodox understanding of original sin and thus little interest in the doctrine of justification. English Deists (see DEISM) preferred a purely moralist conception in which divine pardon depends on an independent act of repentance, undoubtedly inspired by the moral example and teaching of Christ.
In GERMANY the Aufklärung (Enlightenment) followed the same general trend as the English Deists. Some early advocates formally retained the forensic notion of justification, but God’s legal declaration of pardon, they argued, was based on an inherent righteousness within the individual. Later advocates of the German Aufklärung rejected completely any semblance to the orthodox Protestant understanding of justification. Christ’s death, far from atoning for sin, serves as the supreme example and inspiration for humanity to emulate the outstanding moral character of Christ. Presupposed in this moralistic view is the autonomy of the individual, who is regarded as possessing all that is needed for justification. By the end of the eighteenth century the orthodox foundations of the Protestant doctrine of justification had been undermined by the rationalism and moralism of the Enlightenment.
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