Baron von Holbach

Baron von Holbach

The spirit and purpose of the Enlightenment were eloquently expressed by one of its spokesmen, Baron von Holbach, who wrote: "Let us endeavor to disperse those clouds of ignorance, those mists of darkness, which impede Man on his journey, … which prevent him marching through life with a firm and steady step. Let us try to inspire him … with respect for his own reason — with an inextinguishable love of truth … so that he may learn to know himself … and no longer be duped by an imagination that has been led astray by authority … so that he may learn to base his morals on his own nature, on his own wants, on the real advantage of society … so that he may learn to pursue his true happiness, by promoting that of others … in short, so that he may become a virtuous and rational being, who cannot fail to become happy." (Hogwash, especially that part about man basing his morals on his own nature, look where that’s gotten us today!)

[tags]Baron-von-Holbach, BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Enlightenment, history[/tags]

 

2 thoughts on “Baron von Holbach

  1. Kevin

    Hi Rich, I love the quote you used here but you did not cite your source. You used this word for word from the late Dr. Shelly from Denver Seminary. That is, this was taken from his textbook “Church History in Plain Language.” This is disappointing…

    Bruce L. Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, p. 324.

  2. Rich Post author

    Kevin, you are correct.

    The ChurchRodent content was originally a school project done for a college class in 1990. The assignment was to take every term from the index to Shelley’s book, Church History in Plain Language, and define it using his text as a resource.

    When I first created my website back in 1995, on some long-forgotten server, I did give credit. The earliest archive of the index I can find dates back to 1999. You can see it here: https://web.archive.org/web/19991009130856/http://members.dialnet.net/rtatum/churchrodent/terms/vonholbach.htm

    Unfortunately, at some point, I decided to move that content onto my blog. I think that was a mistake and I’ll have to do a lot of work to move it back out. I may even just delete the project entirely: it’s served its purpose. And you’re right: while it worked to fulfill course requirements, I really shouldn’t be publishing it on my site anymore.

    Regards,

    Rich

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