17th–18th centuries

Deism and the Enlightenment: Natural Religion against Revealed Religion

The Enlightenment, according to Grenz and Olson, put human beings and their reason at the center: revelation came to be judged by reason, and Anselm's formula "I believe in order to understand" acquired the opposite sense – "I believe what I can understand." "Natural religion" (the existence of God and moral laws accessible to the reason of all peoples) was given the status of true religion, while "revealed religion" came under attack. Lord Herbert of Cherbury identified five points common to all religions, Toland in Christianity Not Mysterious argued that revelation is unnecessary, and Tindal saw the Gospel merely as a display of the universal natural law. Locke considered Christianity purged of scholasticism the most reasonable religion, and revelation a kind of experience.