Christianity Versus The Enlightenment with Paul Vander Klay | EMP Podcast 75

On this week’s podcast I am having a second conversation with Paul Vander Klay.

There was a lot left to discuss after Paul and I’s first conversation. In particular I wanted to go back and question some of the assumptions about Christianity’s role in the history of the west that I think Paul and I share, but that need to be deeply interrogated.

We start by asking the question: was the rise of the enlightenment due to, or in spite of, the influence of Christianity. This followed by asking if the influence of Christianity was something unique to that religion or could the enlightenment have developed just as well within another religious framework.

We even dig into whether the enlightenment itself is a legacy the west should be proud of. These questions are far too big to effectively answer on a podcast, but I felt enlightened (pun intended) by the conversation, better grounded in my perspective, while also having greater clarity on the gaps in my understanding.

I look forward to hearing what you get out of this conversation which was also very personal for me and quite exposing to share publicly.