A CiRCE Institute Partner Feature

released 4/17/2023

In this 2018 lecture, Ken Myers compares an Enlightenment understanding of what reason is with a Christian view of reason, illustrating the consequences to human life and culture of each perspective. Surveying the influence of Bacon, Descartes, Kant, Locke, and others, Myers reveals how Enlightenment claims that one might be able to look upon reality with “absolute objectivity” lead ultimately to nihilism and alienation from the physical world and from God. In American culture today, Myers argues, most people cling unthinkingly to an irrational view of reason and an enslaving idea of freedom. In answer to the Enlightenment thinkers, he discusses the thought of Hamann, Betz, Gunton, Kreeft, and others, who show how reason originates from and participates in the Divine Logos. Myers then shows from Scripture how the concepts of light (that is, enlightenment) and Logos are intricately intertwined, and how both relate to reason (as the beginning of St. John’s gospel tells us, “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men”). Ultimately, everything in Creation has its order in and is sustained by the Logos — that is, Christ. Thus, the universe is intelligible.

This lecture is provided courtesy of the CiRCE Institute.

57 minutes

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