This study, in the form of an essay or first draft of opening remarks delivered at an international conference on Culture in the Age of Enlightenment, presents one of many possible models for the conceptualization of the Enlightenment in the Czech Lands. Here Enlightenment is conceived as a process whereby ‘knowledge’ (information) is disseminated and gradually democratized and information networks are expanded. This conception draws primarily on theories of vernacularization and cultural transfer. In view of the directional dynamic, we have focussed mainly on ‘unidirectional’ flow in the sense of dispersal from (informational/cultural) centres to the (informational/cultural) periphery – both socioeconomically (transfer to lower social classes) and geographically (transfer to rural areas remote from major urban and educational centres). In this model, the process of vernacularization and democratization of knowledge was divided into three periods: the early formation of educated elites; the ‘acculturation’ of the middle classes; and the extension of information networks to the petty intelligentsia – and through them to the wider rural population. This last phase, carried out as part of a ‘programme’ of popular enlightenment around the turn of the 19th century, more or less coincided, in the theory Miroslav Hroch, with the first and second phases of the Czech National Revival and relied on the same media (Czech-language newspapers, ‘popular’ literature) and authors (Kramerius, Tomsa, Rulík, et al.)
This study is a response to the preceding discussion on the original essay on the concept of enlightenment. It examines the relationship between enlightenment, national revival and Romanticism, issues of popular enlightenment, and the role of the Catholic clergy in the Enlightenment, with further remarks on the phases and specific features of the Czech Enlightenment.
Enlightenment, National Revival, Vernacularization or 'Cultural Renewal'? Further Observations on the Concept of Enlightenment as the 'Democratization of Knowledge' and the Relationship between Enlightenment and National Revival.
This study aims to present the problems of the perspective of Catholic theology and Catholic historiography on the Enlightenment. In its first part it attempts to find an answer to the question: is the Church History rather theological or historical discipline? Then it shows some specifics of the Catholic perspective in the Church History discipline before and after the 2nd Vatican Council. In its second part it shows reflection of the problems of Enlightenment in the Catholic theology. In the next part this study dwells on discussion about understanding of Enlightenment in history since 1908 till now. In its last part shows reflection of theological and historical research in the Bohemian area before and after the 2nd Vatican Council., Rudolf Svoboda., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy