Freethinking in the context of "Christianity in Germany"

⭐ In the context of Christianity in Germany, freethinking during the 17th and 18th centuries is best understood as…

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⭐ Core Definition: Freethinking

Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an unorthodox attitude or belief.

A freethinker holds beliefs that should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and should instead be reached by other methods such as logic, reason, and empirical observation. According to the Collins English Dictionary, a freethinker is "One who is mentally free from the conventional bonds of tradition or dogma, and thinks independently." In some contemporary thought in particular, free thought is strongly tied with rejection of traditional social or religious belief systems. The cognitive application of free thought is known as "freethinking", and practitioners of free thought are known as "freethinkers". Modern freethinkers consider free thought to be a natural freedom from all negative and illusive thoughts acquired from society.

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👉 Freethinking in the context of Christianity in Germany

Christianity is the largest religion in Germany. It was introduced to the area of modern Germany by 300 AD, while parts of that area belonged to the Roman Empire, and later, when Franks and other Germanic tribes converted to Christianity from the fifth century onwards. The area became fully Christianized by the time of Charlemagne in the eighth and ninth century. After the Reformation started by Martin Luther in the early 16th century, many people left the Catholic Church and became Protestant, mainly Lutheran and Reformed. In the 17th and 18th centuries, German cities also became hubs of heretical and sometimes anti-religious freethinking, challenging the influence of religion and contributing to the spread of secular thinking about morality across Germany and Europe.

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Freethinking in the context of Secular ethics

Secular ethics is a branch of moral philosophy in which ethics is based solely on human faculties such as logic, empathy, reason or moral intuition, and not derived from belief in supernatural revelation or guidance—a source of ethics in many religions. Secular ethics refers to any ethical system that does not draw on the supernatural, and includes humanism, secularism and freethinking. A classical example of literature on secular ethics is the Kural text, authored by the ancient Indian philosopher Valluvar.

Secular ethical systems comprise a wide variety of ideas to include the normativity of social contracts, some form of attribution of intrinsic moral value, intuition-based deontology, cultural moral relativism, and the idea that scientific reasoning can reveal objective moral truth (known as science of morality).

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Freethinking in the context of Ingolstadt

Ingolstadt (German: [ˈɪŋɡɔlˌʃtat] ; Austro-Bavarian: [ˈɪŋl̩ʃtɔːd]) is an independent city on the Danube, in Upper Bavaria, with 142,308 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2023). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan area. Ingolstadt is the second largest city in Upper Bavaria after Munich and the fifth largest city in Bavaria after Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg and Regensburg. The city passed the mark of 100,000 inhabitants in 1989 and has since been one of the major cities in Germany. After Regensburg, Ingolstadt is the second largest German city on the Danube.

The city was first mentioned in 806. In the late Middle Ages, the city was one of the capitals of the Bavarian duchies alongside Munich, Landshut and Straubing, which is reflected in the architecture. On 13 March 1472 Ingolstadt became the seat of the first university in Bavaria, which later distinguished itself as the center of the Counter-Reformation. The freethinking Illuminati order was also founded here in 1776. The city was also a Bavarian state fortress for more than 400 years. The historic old town has been preserved.

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LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Christianity in Germany ← Secular ethics ← Ingolstadt
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Belief → Authority → Tradition → Revelation → Dogma → Logic → Reason → Empiricism → Collins English Dictionary → Cognitive →