Page 318 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

O r t h o d o x y
what is not immediately rational, aesthetically pleasing, or
emotionally gratifying.
The most decisive influence of the Enlightenment, how-
ever, is found in social, political, and economic life.
In the field of education, the conviction arose that all peo-
ple are capable of learning and should be educated. Led by
Voltaire, often called the “intellectual dictator of Europe,” the
Enlightenment undertook a vast effort to disseminate knowl-
edge. The Encyclopedia, realized by Denis Diderot, aimed to
make knowledge accessible to all and to dissolve prejudices,
especially religious ones. This development increased society’s
esteem for education, but it also produced a paradox: the pro-
liferation of superficial or partial knowledge, and the assump-
tion that everyone is competent to judge truth simply by being
educated. Thus emerged a form of populism in knowledge,
rooted in the belief that human reason is the absolute author-
ity.
In political life, the influence of the Enlightenment is equal-
ly decisive. The modern world is shaped by the ideals of the
French and American Revolutions: equality, individual rights,
and the sovereignty of “the people.” Authority based on tradi-
tion or divine sanction is replaced by systems that express the
will of individuals or collective bodies. At the same time, En-
lightenment thinkers such as Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rous-
seau promoted the idea of a unified Europe, grounded in a
shared rational culture and the hope of overcoming conflict.
This worldview was accompanied by profound optimism.
The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries believed that human-
ity, guided by reason and science, would eliminate ignorance,
injustice, hunger, and disease, ushering in a kind of earthly
paradise. This optimism reached almost the level of religious
faith in figures such as Victor Hugo. Only prophetic voices
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