The Great Awakening, The Enlightenment, and James Madison
Two great movements of the 18th century sought to give men freedom. Each promised to free the minds of men and in turn give them liberty from oppression. In some instances, one movement would hold primacy over the other or completely exclude the other. When balance was not maintained, the rights of individuals and groups were suppressed. Extreme measures were taken against those that stood against the dominant position. In one point of time, both the Enlightenment and the Reformation combined to create a new world of freedom for men. Born out of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment placed value upon logic and reason. While early thinkers such as Pascal saw reason as a portion of General Revelation, later generations began to move away from the faith alone perspectives of the Medieval Roman Catholic Church. Religion, commonly referred to as superstition by Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire and Jefferson, was replaced with a vi...