Though I do not have much free time, and am only able to read perhaps ten pages a day, I have become immersed in the historical time of the Scottish Enlightenment. It certainly was a major event in Western history.
While a student, Adam Smith, who was an influential person of the time and a man of great personal privacy, had a professor that pushed the intellectual limits of thinking about religion. The Prof. was Francis Hutcheson, Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
This quote sums up the change in thought, away from Scholasticism that had dominated Western ideas for almost 1,000 years:
"Hutcheson regarded the study of human nature and the natural world as the only sure foundation on which theological knowledge could be built."
Phillipson, Nicholas, 2010. Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life. 1st Ed. Yale University Press.
Hucheson was a Radical Presbyterian. At the time, most of Scotland was Presbyterian though there were different factions ranging from orthodox to radical.
To read about the emergence of influences that affected Adam Smith and his famous writing is a deeply felt experience for me.
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