From the scientific revolution to Enlightenment

The birth of Early Modernity is marked by a scientific and intellectual revolution which damages the teachings of the Church. The development of modern science, from the development of the heliocentric model by Copernic in the 16th century till the theory of evolution of the species formulated by Darwin in the 19th, questions the vision of the universe conveyed by Christianity. This scientific revolution is revealing of the empowerment of thought towards Churches. From the 17th century, thinkers, called “libertines” develop their ideas outside the boundaries drawn by Christianity. Gradually, philosophy distances itself from theology. The 18th century is marked by a very diverse intellectual movement: Enlightenment. Its representatives have in common to base their thought on the exercise of reason against revealed truths and to promote a vision of man and society established on natural rights, that is inherent to the human nature. In so doing, Enlightenment conflicts with the model of the absolute monarchy, then dominating in Europe, and which receives the support of Churches. It is towards the Churches that the diversity of Enlightenment is manifested. Certain philosophers are even agnostic, atheistic, as Diderot, what puts an antireligious twist to the French Enlightenment. However, deism is favoured by numerous philosophers, as Jean-Jacques Rousseau or Voltaire, and criticisms concern more the Church than religion in itself, that is still conceived as the necessary foundation of morality. However, outside Europe or America, Enlightenment is little concerned with fighting against the Church and promotes rather a religious renovation.

Secularization, laicization

At the same time, Christian societies are experiencing two evolutions, distinct in nature but often mixed together because they end in a reduction of the place of religion in society Secularization is a slow and insensible process by which the Christian Churches gradually lose their influence on society and people. Secularization is not the result of State policies, but the consequence of the evolution of mentalities. Its principal manifestation is the end of the previous situation of religious unity within one State. The acts of civil tolerance promulgated in Austria by Joseph II (1780-1790) and in France by Louis XVI (1774-1792) want to not just “tolerate” the existence of religious minorities, they recognize them the right to practise their religion freely. In the United States, the First Amendment (1789) recognizes the freedom of belief. In France, the 10th article of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen proclaims the freedom of opinions, including the freedom of religious beliefs. The progressive adoption of these great liberties and the modifications of civil law, heavily influenced by the spread of the Civil Code (promulgated in 1804), accompany this process of secularization. In France, the Concordat (1801) and the organic Acts (1802) only notice that Catholicism is “the religion of the great majority of the French people” without making it the State religion, but one of the four “recognized denominations” with the Lutheran Church, the Reformed Church (Calvinist) and Judaism.
Unlike secularization, laicization is a voluntary process, a policy by which the State tries to free itself from any kind of influence of the Churches. This process is not necessarily antireligious: the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States (1789) forbids the making of a law respecting an establishment of religion, because it would be an infringement in the freedom of faith. The separation of religions and the State does not prevent a strong religiosity: public prayers were forbidden in American schools at the beginning of 1960s, but the national motto is “In God we trust”.
This process is more conflicting in the Catholic countries, partially because of the rejection by the Roman Catholic Church of the ideas coming from the Enlightenment (generally endorsed by the Protestant Churches which distinguish personal faith and action in society) and because of its support for the monarchy (absolute then reactionary) to maintain its influence on society in general. The pontificate of Pius IX (1846-1878) is marked by a rejection of the new ideas and political models and by an attempt to reaffirm the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Such an attempt is manifested by the proclamation of the principle of papal infallibility during the council of Vatican (1869-1870) – a council interrupted by the conquest of Rome by Italy.
This position feeds a virulent, sometimes violent anticlericalism. France knows several episodes of this type which mark the break between the Republic and the Catholic Church: the Civil Constitution of the clergy (1791), which is an attempt of takeover and reorganization of the French Church by the new authorities, soon followed by the seizure of the properties of the clergy, is the starting point of a long hostility, manifested by a policy of de-christianization during the Terror (1793-1794). Violent upsurges of anticlericalism also occur in Mexico during the Revolution (1910-1920) and the Cristeros War (1926-1929), a peasant uprising against the anticlerical policy of the government, or still with the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939).
At the end of the 19th century, the triumphal Republican regime gets on with laicization of France. In the 1880s, the purpose is to build a common and neutral space by guaranteeing the denominational neutrality of the public places. The fight against the influence of the Roman Catholic Church is manifested by a school policy, with the implementation of a secular/laic primary school and the ban to teach for members of religious orders. The law on associations (1901) is the opportunity to dissolve a lot of congregations; consequently many members of religious orders go into exile. The law of separation of religions and the State (1905) achieves this process of dissociation. The freedom of conscience and the free exercise of worship are reaffirmed from the article 1, but there is neither official recognition nor subsidy of Churches by the public authorities.

The new problems

The 19th century is marked by industrialization. European societies are upset because these economic transformations come along with fast social changes. Traditional societies lose their former structure by the process of urbanization: cities swell with the arrival of numerous countrymen who come to work in the industry and constitute from now a working class whose conditions of work and life cause a big concern among many of their contemporaries. At the same time, a social group enriched by industrialization is ascending: bourgeoisie. The technical progress, fed by the scientific discoveries, introduces big changes in the everyday life: railroad, steam navigation, streetcar, electric lighting, phones … Traditional models seem completely overtaken, that causes the arising of new ideologies without relationship to Christianity: on one side, liberalism, which goes along the development of industry and political modernization by giving them theoretical foundations, and, on the other side, socialism which tries to modify radically the industrialized societies, if need be by revolution. The “social question” eventually imposes upon the Christian Churches. People interested in this question are at first individuals, Catholics and Protestants, moved by the lot of workers. The first answer comes from charity. Then we see the raising of a social Christianity which seeks to reform society to end labour poverty. Concerning Protestant, we can observe the implementation of new structures to supervise people: the YMCA (Young Men Christian Associations) in 1844, to welcome the newcomers in town in a decent and Christian environment, the Salvation Army (1865), which binds help to the poor people and evangelization, counting on the inner transformation of man to allow the social, economic and political progress, or the scouting (1907), which develops a sense of responsibilities governed by faith. The activities of Catholic believers are going to be helped by Leo XIII (1878-1903), who formulates the social doctrine of the Church in the encyclical Rerum novarum (1891). Catholics are active in youth clubs, but also in new kinds of structures not bound to the parish system: the Catholic Action with a pioneer association, the Catholic association of French Youth, created in 1886 by Albert de Mun.

The vitality of Christianity in the 19th century

In spite of this complex relationship between Christianity and modernity, the 19th century is also a period of strong religious dynamism. The Roman Catholic Church tries to supervise better its believers by ensuring a greater value to the role of the priest, the iconic figure of which is Jean-Marie Vianney, priest of Ars from 1818 till 1859 which worked at the re-christianization of his parish, was beatified in 1905 and canonized in 1925. The worship of Mary and the pilgrimages know a revival, stimulated by the faith in the Marian apparitions, for example at Lourdes in the Pyrenees (1858). The 19th century is also the golden age of religious congregations, in particular female ones.
In Protestantism also there is a new dynamism impelled by several "awakenings": the first one takes place in the United States in the 1730s following Jonathan Edwards's sermons, but which also influence the European Protestants. The American and European Protestantism live a second awakening in the years 1800-1830, then a third in the years 1850-1900 and a fourth since the 1960s. The purpose of these awakenings is to shake a routinized faith by insisting on inner conversion and devotion. At first addressed to believers in the aim to arise their faith, these movements address afterwards those who turned away from Christianity. In spite of their diversity, the currents of the Protestantism stemming from these awakenings are grouped under the label “Evangelical Christianity”.
The dynamism of the Catholic and Protestant Churches is manifested also by a revival missionary. The 19th century is marked by a new phase of European expansion, with an acceleration of colonization in the second half of the century. The missionaries fail in the Muslim world, but are at the origin of numerous conversions in sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia. The attitude of the Churches toward colonization is ambiguous: the European presence allows them to carry out their missionary activities without the risk of violent reaction, but they distance themselves in the turn of the century before supporting the process of decolonization by favouring the creation of a local clergy.