Book Review: The Enlightenment: An Interpretation: The Rise of Modern Paganism by Peter Gay

The first of Peter Gay's two-volume history of the Enlightenment published in 1966, The Rise of Modern Paganism delves into the influences and tensions that influenced the philosophes of Europe during the 18th Century. Gay was a professor of History at Columbia and Yale and the prolific author of a wide variety of books ranging from intellectual, social, to cultural history. 

The prose of this work is first rate, written with grace and precision, earning the National Book Award. Dense. but never overwhelmingly so, Gay skillfully synthesizes and bridges philosophic ideals across the centuries. The primary thesis posits the 18th century philosophes determination to make a clean break with Christianity and restore "pagan" philosophies of the ancients including tolerance, idealistic, a recovery of nerve against the overwhelming power of the Church. 

Gay skillfully juggles varying figures and ideas. When thinking of the Enlightenment, the typical names are Voltaire, Rousseau, Hume, and Diderot - but there are so many figures who made contributions. Neither were they uniform in their programs and ideas, there was a wide spectrum of thought. Applying criticism to everything was one tool all had in common. Few of them came up with original ideas or invented their own philosophic systems, they were primarily interpreters who believed in the power of reason to refine and reshape society for the better. 

Much of the book deals with the historical influences that shaped the philosophes. To them, it was in the words of Cicero or Lucretius (just to mention a few) where true wisdom was to be found. Edward Gibbon's epic history The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is fountain of Enlightenment ideals about the past, his history juxtaposed the rise of Christianity with the Empire's fall.

This volume also traces the course of thought through the rise of Christianity and the Middle Ages. Philosophes popularized the skewed view of "Dark Ages" as a time of regression and ignorance, they scoffed at attempts of synthesize Christianity with ancient philosophy. The Renaissance of the 15-16th centuries was still ensnared with religion but provided a new intellectual climate to set the stage for a return to secular ideas by the efforts of Erasmus and others to translate ancient texts from their original forms. 

The erudition, quotation, and insight packed into this book are impressive. Gay is the kind of writer who makes the reader feel smarter. My copy is full of notations I wrote. The ideas, conflicts, and individuals in the book still speak to the 21st Century. Gay makes an argument for their relevance in the modern era as harbingers of free thought, although their legacy remains a point of contention among philosophers and historians. Th Rise of Modern Paganism mostly concerned with their intellectual inheritance, while the next volume The Science of Freedom deals more directly with them as contemporary figures living in the 18th Century.