Enlightening

The Enlightenment was a movement to get people to think for themselves instead of passively accepting authority’s views as infallible. This theory hinged upon the need for community – intellectual feedback and stimulation. It was important to bring ideas into the public domain where your thoughts could be tested against those of others in a tolerant environment. What could you contribute to knowledge?
In several Scottish Enlightenment tracts, light imagery is used. Darkness stood for ignorance and the condemnation of ideas, and light signaled individual improvement – moral and intellectual – leading to collective growth. My professor, who holds the chair in moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow, told me he didn’t suppose the first Scottish Enlightenment had ever ended – the pattern of independent thought and tolerance persists in today’s society. I quite agreed with him.
But in my mind, the spiritual enlightenment has not yet occurred – at least not in recent times. Scotland is in desperate need of revival, as is the west in general. Every day, walking to and from class, I pass a beautiful church – dating from the 19th century – that has been converted into a bar. The sight sickens me. But on the other hand, a couple of strip clubs in the city centre have been transformed into houses of worship. There is definitely hope for this lost place, this lost generation – but it is hard to recognize sometimes. The city of Glasgow is vibrant enough but, ironically, the life it possesses has no true value. Only the life the Father gives is worth living. All else is “rubbish,” to use a British word.
Everywhere I go, people walk under canopies of darkness, with sources of light flickering all around, yet going unperceived by their unaccustomed eyes.
I pray a spiritual enlightenment would strike into this place like the beat of a drum, resounding in the streets, setting the foundations of achievement trembling. Knowledge and even morality is nothing but an empty space without the grace of God through His plan of redemption. Several figures of the Enlightenment emphasized moral virtue in link with progress; this involved a constantly changing network of clubs and societies devoted to the improvement of economic efficiency, manners, and learning and letters.
Enlightenment “morality” centered on the individual, whereas moral convictions for the believer are founded upon the desire to obey the One who saves. He sets everything in motion with His love. And without the Holy Spirit in our lives, even at the best, we are little better than Tennyson’s Maud:

“Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null/ Dead perfection and no more.”

The pursuit of knowledge, accompanied by the sharpening of intellect, is a joy when the Father instills that yearning. God does not give one a passion for no reason, and if that desire is for knowledge, He will be glorified in that endeavor. The process enables one to sift out good philosophy from bad. To discern Truth in the midst of illusions and to apply that Truth is the ultimate goal.