Description
In this lecture/discussion video from my Spring 2014 Religion in America class at Marist college, we begin to discuss the textbook for the class (America's Religions: From Their Origins to the Twenty-first Century 3rd. ed., by Peter Williams), focusing on Chapter 18, "The Origins of Modern Religious Liberalism".
We discuss in particular the European Renaissance and Humanism (touching on Erasmus, Galileo, and Servetus), the European Enlightenment, and its American manifestations, particularly in figures such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. We also discuss some of the distinctives of liberalism in religion (as something different from, though related to, liberalism in politics). Towards the end, we mention the influential Scottish "Common Sense philosophy" and its doctrine of the moral sense, and end on the Universalist movement (later to merge with the Unitarians)
Since videos discussing religion tend to get a number of polemical, poorly informed, and off-topic comments, I've set comments to require review and approval before they'll be publicly posted.
The textbook used for this class can be purchased from Amazon here: http://amzn.to/LS32U4
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