Before revolutions… before constitutions… before freedom of belief became a principle…
In this sixth episode of The Mosaic Chat, we enter a decisive turning point where reason begins to question everything, including religion itself.
From Spinoza to Voltaire, a new intellectual movement emerges in Europe.
It challenges the authority of Churches, questions sacred texts, and affirms that human reason should be the ultimate judge of truth. After centuries of religious conflict, many begin to see faith not as a source of unity, but as a source of division.
Yet the Enlightenment does not simply reject God. It transforms the way God is understood. Some imagine a distant creator, accessible through reason alone. Others go further, envisioning a world without divine intervention, where science, politics, and human progress take center stage.
These ideas do not remain abstract. They reshape societies.
From the American Constitution to the French Revolution, religion is progressively separated from political power. Belief becomes a personal choice rather than a collective obligation.
For Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, this moment is an ordeal.
It raises new questions about authority, interpretation, and the place of faith in a world increasingly shaped by science and individual freedom.
This transformation also reaches North Africa and the Middle East, where similar questions emerge in different historical contexts.
What place can religion hold in modern societies? How can belief and freedom coexist?
Understanding this moment invites us to reflect on how faith adapts, resists, and transforms in response to modernity, and how these tensions continue to shape the Abrahamic world today.
🎙 A conversation with Galith Abbou Benichou and Tomer Attias.
📖 Inspired by Abramundi: Manifesto for the Creation of an Abrahamic Alliance in the Middle East and North Africa
