The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers
| Author | Carl Becker |
|---|---|
| Published | 1932 |
| Recommended | 2 times |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Four 1931 Yale lectures arguing that the Enlightenment philosophers were far less emancipated from the medieval mind than they believed: they demolished the City of God only to rebuild it on earth, replacing Providence with Nature, grace with reason, and the life to come with posterity. |
The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers
Where I heard about it
- University of Austin — assigned in History, Historiography, and the Philosophy of History on its Fall 2025 reading list, November 2025, where Becker makes the course’s question about secular faith unavoidable and sits directly upstream of Löwith’s Meaning in History. Full curriculum: UATX Fall Reading List.
- On Patrick Collison’s Bookshelf — Patrick Collison’s catalog of the physical books he owns (unflagged). Saved in Kyle’s April 19th, 2020 Roam daily note.
Connections
- UATX Fall Reading List — the curriculum this is assigned in.
- Carl Becker — already in the wiki, quoted in American Sphinx on Jefferson’s ideas resting “precariously on the aspirations and ideals of good men”; this book is the long form of that same suspicion about Enlightenment optimism.
- Enlightenment — the movement the book re-reads.
- Philosophy of History — the genre the argument belongs to.
- Progress — the idea Becker traces back to a theological ancestor.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.