Hmm …

… Digging Up Diderot | The Hudson Review. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

In a time of religious and political intolerance, it is easy to be grateful for the Enlightenment, even with its subsequent violent idealisms. Jefferson said every generation needs its revolution, but that puts a lot of strain on the world. We need a break from it all, and surely the intellectual brilliance of figures from Newton and Locke to Diderot shouldn’t be blamed for the Reign of Terror.

True, up to a point. But ideas — even those born of intellectual brilliance — do have consequences. The problem with theology, for instance, is that it is not the same thing as faith.