Five Stories from the History of Enlightened Religion (Illummism). Journal of the Blaisdell Institute, vol. 11 (review)

480 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY ing various social, economic, religious, and political reforms, the phdosophes showed that they recognized cosmopolitanism as an appropriate way of giving their demands both rhetorical and philosophical coherence. Schlereth acknowledges that cosmopolitanism was not fully realized or even fully comprehended in Enlightenment thought. There were ideas that led to bitter disputes among the philosopher. Many thinkers exaggerated their own umversality. Yet even in light of these qualifications, Schtereth inslsts that in the end we must see that thephdosophes "shared an internationalconsciousness by which they sought to transcend political allegiances, ethnic origins, and national peculiarities." In pursuit of the "cosmopolitan ideal," Schlereth swims against the tide of most recent Enlightenment scholarship. To many intellectual historians it now appears that no definition of the Enlightenment is able to include all the men usually assumed to be philosopher. Moreover, they claim that propositions suggesting the unity of the Enlightenment seem too simple and general. Schlereth disagrees with these views. And in using cosmopolitanism as a unifying theme, he has suggested a novel way of pursuing the notion of a monolithic Enlightenment. There are at least three major difficulties in Schlereth's argument, however. First, it does not provide a definition of the Enlightenment separate from the discussion of the cosmopolitan ideal. Schlereth appears to assume that because cosmopolitanism is an intellectually coherent ~deal present in Enlightenmentthought, it follows that we find a central unity in the Enhgbtenment itself. Secondly, using Franklin, Hume, and Voltaire as the focus of the argument is a questionable tactic. These three may represent the best approximations of the cosmopolitan ideal, but it is not clear that they are also the representative figures m a transatlantic Enlightenment. And to make a convincing argument for a widespread cosmopolitanism, more perplexing figures might have been chosen--for example, John Adams, Adam Ferguson, and Franqois Quesnay. Finally, while Schlereth disagrees with most current views of the Enlightenment, his bibliographical essay suggests that his scholarship ts not up to date In some areas. There is no mention of recent important work by Pocock, Hirschman, Dumont, Duncan Forbes, Henry F. May, and Alan Kors. RICHARD TEICHGRAEBERIIl Tutane Universit), Herbert W. Schneider. Five Storiesfrom theHistor)' ofEnlightened Religion (lllummism). Journal of the Blaisdell Institute, vol. 11, special ~ssue. Claremont, Calif.: Blaisdell lnstxtute, 1976. Pp. ii + 63. $2.00. For several years Herbert Schnender has been working on a book-length study of Augustinianismand its influence. FiveStories--informal lectures given under the auspices of the Blaisdell Institute--is an initial presentation of the fruits of his research and careful thought on the subject. Schneider's subtitle indicates some of what he is driving at in these five vignettes from religious history: Religious Enlightenment from Augustine to the Enhghtenment. Religious enlightenment through this fourteen-hundred-year period is an enligtenment of the heart, a feeling of being spiritually illuminated, a rejection of the darkness of this world for the light of the spiritual world. This kind of religious enlightenment is not be be confused with the scientific or rational Enlightenmentof eighteenth-century philosophy. Nonetheless, Schneider begins his lectures by discussing an unenlightened rehgious thinker and rational critic of religion, Tom Paine. During the French Revolution Paine started his Theophilanthropic Societies--the friends of God and Man. Schneider says that he wanted to find out where this notion of "Theophilantrhopic'" came from and soon found himself back to St. Augustine. He realizes only too well that if he did not restrict his canvas to Christians, he would be pursuing his theme through Zarathustra, Budda, the Jewish cabala, and so on. Schneider seems to be much enamoured of Augustine and cites a great deal of autobiographical material to show what enlightenment meant to him. In the crucial conversLon scene in the Confes- BOOK REVIEWS 481 sions, Augustine said: "In that instant.., it was as though a light of utter confidence shown in all my heart and all the darkness of uncertainty vanished away." The enlightenment elements here are the Illumination of the heart and the overcoming of darkness. This, as Schneider insists, "is not just rhetoric, this is theology as well" (p. 10). According to Schneider, Augustine wanted to spend his llfe in the fellowship of...