Austin Perilstein
Monday, November 23, 2015

An Earth Shattering Crisis of Faith
Fire has the power to consume, burn and destroy anything in its path, yet it can also be an agent of rebirth and growth, clearing a path for the new while destroying the old. The earthquake that struck Lisbon Portugal on November 1, All Saints Day, 1755 left 15,000 dead, the city destroyed and the faith of thousands of Christians in jeopardy. The resulting blaze that torched the city for a week afterwards acts as a symbol for the catalyst of the intellectual crisis that resulted. More than a thousand years of faith was called into question as intellectuals searched for a superior explanation for the disaster other than it playing a small role in Gods plan. The disaster opened the door for openly questioning God’s role in the natural world allowing for the growth of new ideas and the rejection of old and antiquated ones. In the end the earthquake in Lisbon presented such an intellectual crisis because it forced Philosophes and Theologians alike to question their own faith as well as the core beliefs that society was built upon. The sheer destruction of the event placed Theologians on the defensive as they attempted to rationalize the event while pushing Philosophes ever further from the core views of the church.
While every disaster is a tragedy, the Lisbon earthquake sparked an intellectual crisis because of the disturbing nature of its destruction and the time period in which it happened. Occurring on All Saints Day 1755, disaster struck during the beginning of the Intellectual revolution, a period during the 18th century marked by a conviction in the “expanding literate sector that the human condition could be improve through science, education, philosophy, economic growth, and political reform.” Predated by nearly 1,000 years of near total religious control of the collective thought, the mid 17th century was already a hot bed for discussion about role of God and his relationship with the physical world. Following the disaster, intellectuals on all sides of the issue were forced to respond due to its extreme nature. Not only had thousands died, but the date of the earthquake happened to fall on All Saints Day, a religious holiday for Christians in which “Roman Catholics ... are obligated to attend mass in commemoration of all of the church’s saints”. Theologians, who believed that every action in the natural world was part of God’s plan, were forced to respond in order to defend their faith, and preserve the power of God in the eyes of man. Theologians like John Wesley needed to answer the question of “is there indeed a God that judges the world”, before the Philosophes beliefs could permeate the faith of the uneducated masses. For the Philosophes the Lisbon earthquake only strengthened their beliefs “that nothing happened in such a world without sufficient cause or reason” and pushed them further from the Church’s traditional views. The earthquake forced the Philosophes to respond, calling into question the strength of their faith in God vs. the strength of their faith in the “study of nature.”
The general Theologian response to the disaster was similar to the school of thought shared by Church for the last thousand years. Facing a test in their faith the Theologians clung to their existing beliefs, seeking an excuse for “the wrath of God” that had been unleashed on the city of Lisbon. One Jesuit Priest, Gabriel Malagrida, excused God’s actions in the simplest terms while simultaneously attacking the Philosophes beliefs, in a pamphlet written after the earthquake. He wrote that the disaster sent “a great harvest of sinful souls … to hell”, blaming the thousands of deaths on their own “sinful ways”. His view matches the traditional view of the Church that God acts both out of “love and mercy” but also with “scourge in hand”. Not only does he defend the actions of God and reaffirm faith in the Church, but he also uses the pamphlet as an opportunity to attack the Philosophes beliefs, claiming that “to pretend the earthquake was just a natural event … [and say] there is no need to repent” is an idea that “not even the Devil himself could invent”. A more progressive Theologian viewpoint is expressed by Jean Jacques Rousseau in his Letter to Voltaire regarding Voltaire’s poem on the Lisbon earthquake. In his letter he dismisses Voltaire’s desire to blame God, and instead remarks on his admiration for Alexander Pope’s poem on the role of God. Rather than lose himself to negativity, Rousseau writes that Pope’s poem “alleviates [his] difficulties and inclines [him] to patience”. Unlike Malagrida, Rousseau rejects the notion that the catastrophe was a “scourge” of God, instead claiming that the “source of evil” could not have come from anywhere “but in man”. His thoughts reflect a mix between traditional values, and those of the more progressive Philosophes, by accepting Gods divine plan and its role in the disaster yet understanding that the mass death was not a direct result of God, but instead the “moral evil … in man.” While Rousseaus views are more progressive than Malagridas they do not represent the norm. Malagridas rejection of natural law and embracement of religious explanation was shared by most Theologians including John Wesley.
For the Philosophes the Lisbon earthquake represented such an important event because it marked a significant turning point in their understanding of God. On one hand many of the Philosophes were devout Christians who still had faith in God and maintained at least some degree of belief that God had a role in the natural world, whether that be a direct role or a divine plan. The resulting crisis stemmed from the choice the earthquake left many Philosophes; accept the earthquake as part of Gods plan, or fully commit to the belief in a world-machine that may have been created by god, but cannot be interrupted by him. The result of the earthquake on the Philosophes beliefs appears to have pushed them towards the latter. Prior to the Lisbon earthquake the work of Isaac Newton was already challenging God’s direct relationship with the natural world. In a letter from Voltaire in 1974 Voltaire expresses his admiration for Isaac Newton, claiming, “a Man like Sire Isaac Newton, whose equal is hardly found in a thousand Years, is the truly great man.” Voltaire understands that Newtons discovery “wou’d offend”, yet still embraces his ideas. Similarly David Hume’s “Essay on Miracles” from 1748 reflects a similar desire for the absolute truth, and the willingness to displease the church in the name of the truth. In his essay David Hume declares that “it appears, that [there is] no testimony for any kind of miracle” and that the Christian religion is held together by Faith, which “subverts all the principles of [mans] understanding.” After the Lisbon earthquake these “radical” beliefs seem to only be pushed further towards the right as the Philosophes commit to the idea of a world machine acting without the interference of God. In His “Poem on the Lisbon Disaster, or an Examination of that Axiom ‘All is Well’,” written after the destruction of Lisbon, Voltaire completely rejects the notion of a divine plan. In a direct response to Alexander Popes poem “All is Well”, Voltaire asks how anyone could believe that the earthquake was the “result of eternal laws directing the acts of a free and good God” when there were children who died “crushed and bloody on their mothers’ breasts”. This line attacks the traditional Theologian response to any disaster and shows the power of the Lisbon earthquake to push the Philosophes away from societies common beliefs.
Those who benefit from stability will always reject change. For the Theologians of the 18th century the Lisbon earthquake shook the foundation of their beliefs and threatened their very existence. Any threat to their beliefs called for an immediate response, resulting in an intellectual crisis as both Theologians and Philosophes sought to explain the destruction that had unfolded. The Theologians turned towards their traditional beliefs to explain the earthquake; counting on the faith of the masses to accept their traditional explanation. The Philosophes rejected the antiquated ideas, relying on scientific methods to define their beliefs. The end result of the Lisbon earthquake was a movement towards the extremes by both parties. As the ideas of the Theologians and Philosophes grew further apart the separation between religion and science grew as well, forcing intellectuals to choose a side for the first time.

Bibliography
Weisner et al., Discovering the Western Past, A Look at the Evidence, Volume II: Since 1500 (Connecticut: Cengage Learning, 2015) pp. 77
Kagan, Donald et al., The Western Heritage Volume 2: Since 1648 (New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.) pp. 512

--------------------------------------------
[ 1 ]. Weisner et al., Discovering the Western Past, A Look at the Evidence, Volume II: Since 1500 (Connecticut: Cengage Learning, 2015) pp. 77
[ 2 ]. Kagan, Donald et al., The Western Heritage Volume 2: Since 1648 (New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.) pp. 512
[ 3 ]. Weisner et al., Discovering the Western Past, A Look at the Evidence, Volume II: Since 1500 (Connecticut: Cengage Learning, 2015) pp. 77
[ 4 ]. Weisner et al, Discovering the Western Past, 77
[ 5 ]. Ibid., 77
[ 6 ]. Ibid., 99
[ 7 ]. Ibid., 85
[ 8 ]. Ibid., 83
[ 9 ]. Ibid., 83
[ 10 ]. Ibid., 94
[ 11 ]. Ibid., 94
[ 12 ]. Ibid., 87
[ 13 ]. Ibid., 99
[ 14 ]. Ibid., 92