Princeton historian, Jonathan Israel, picks and discusses five books on the Enlightenment in this interview with Five Books.
From the piece: “What really counts in the 18th century is not atheism as such, but the rejection of divine providence and religious authority. If there is no divine providence guiding the course of history, the existing social order can’t be part of the divine plan. This is the connection between being revolutionary in religious matters and being revolutionary in social and political matters”
Read the full interview here.