In Episode 232 of Masonic Muscle: The Origin War, we examine Michael Spurr's Age of Enlightenment Theory, presented in his 1996 paper, Freemasonry—Child of the Enlightenment? Or Vice Versa?
Spurr proposed a relationship of mutual influence between Freemasonry and Enlightenment ideals, including brotherhood, equality, respect for law, loyalty to the king, and belief in a Supreme Being.
We explore the intellectual environment of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe, the development of speculative Freemasonry, and James Anderson's Constitutions of the Free-Masons (1723).
How did an existing fraternity develop within a society experiencing profound changes in science, religion, philosophy, and social organization?
This investigation adds another historical perspective to our growing foundation of Masonic origin theories.
Sources:
· Michael Spurr, Freemasonry—Child of the Enlightenment? Or Vice Versa?, AQC 109 (1996)
· Roeinton Khambatta, Theories on the Origins of Freemasonry
· James Anderson, Constitutions of the Free-Masons (1723)
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Next: Episode 233 — Michael Baigent, Hermetic Thought and the Royal Society.
Strengthening the Craft—one degree, one lift at a time.
