A Tale of Two Revolutions

In this episode, Glenn contrasts the secular, Enlightenment-inspired French Revolution with the spiritual revolution that transformed England at roughly the same time. The French Enlightenment was an anti-Christian project that provided a radical critique of society and theorized about how to fix it. Once the French internalized Enlightenment ideas, the Revolution became inevitable, though it took a government debt crisis to trigger it. The elite’s theories didn’t solve the problem, resulting in chaos and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of French citizens. In contrast, the spiritual revolution in England from the Evangelical Revivals reached deep into the lower classes and prevented England from degenerating into the violence of the French Revolution. It also led to Wilberforce and the Clapham sect and the spiritual and moral transformation of English society. Chris and Tom chime in about the philosophical ideas of the Enlightenment and the parallels with America today.