RAUL J. BONOAN, S.J.

THE ENLIGHTENMENT, DEISM, AND RIZAL

RAUL J. BONOAN, S.J.

• TOFIL Awardee for Education, 1997 • He was a teacher,

counselor and friend to generations of students in Ateneo de Manila.• He became Admissions

Director in 1976 and Graduate School and College Dean in 1980.

RAUL J. BONOAN, S.J.

• In 1989, he assumed the presidency of Ateneo de Naga.• Bonoan is also a leading Rizal

scholar.• The Rizal-Pastells

Correspondence (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1994) is recognized as a major contribution to the study of Rizal and Philippine intellectual history.

RAUL J. BONOAN, S.J.

• Describing himself “first and always a priest,” Bonoan went about his work in his adopted city of Naga “for the greater glory of God.”• Bonoan died of a heart

attack on April 6, 1999 at the age of 63.

TIME FRAME IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY

• This particular article talks of the academic life of Jose Rizal in Spain. It basically covers the Late Spanish period in Philippine History, specifically, the Rizaliana period.

SUMMARY

• Rizal arrived in Spain 1882

• Spanish was moving to enlightenment and the focus of this movement is Universidad Central de Madrid where Rizal studied for three years.

SUMMARY

• Immanuel Kant: Enlightenment was man’s emergence from age of immaturity , marked by indecision and lack of courage, to reliance on his own reason.• Sapere aude, “Use your

reason, think your own”.

SUMMARY

• With enlightenment, religious beliefs was reduced to the existence of God and the immortality of the soul, religious practice to ethical behavior, the role of Church and her ministers to that of moral guides in what concerns private life.

• Deism – new theology which is basically about “natural revelation” rather than Christian revelation.

• “Religion of nature” or “Natural religion”.

SUMMARY

• Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet, 1694-1778)• Obsessed to the

eradication of all religions (but he mainly aims to eradicate Catholicism).

SUMMARY

• Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78)• Focused on the role

of the heart, conscience, sentiments, feelings and moral intuition in the conduct of moral life.• Against

intellectualism

SUMMARY

• At UNIVERSIDAD CENTRAL DE MADRID.

• Liberals vs. Traditional Catholics• Miguel Morayta and Giner del Rios vs. Menendez

Pelayo and Orti y Lara

• Rizal met two thinkers whom he had special relationship.

SUMMARY

• Miguel Morayta Sagario (1833-1917) – chair of Spanish History at the University and masonic Grandmaster of the Gran Oriente Español. • Professor of Rizal

SUMMARY

• Francisco Pi y Margall (1824-1901) – president of the short-lived First Republic, became Rizal’s friend.

SUMMARY

• Academic freedom was one of the first lessons Rizal learned ate the Universidad Central.

• Rizal participated in a protest led by Morayta which ended with the arrest of the participants. Among the few who managed to escape the arrest was Rizal.

• Rizal became a deist.

SUMMARY

• Evidence of Rizal’s deism:• Rizal-Pastell correspondence• Tasio el Filosofo

• Rizal was more of a Rousseau deist than a Voltairean.

• Rizal was initiated in Masonry at London. He began to attack friars with his writings.

SUMMARY

• Critique of Rizal’s deism:• Rizal’s view of nature was one-sided.• Rizal presupposes that the study of nature is an easy

one.• Rizal’s “revelation of nature” is not true revelation.

• Rizal’s rupture with the Catholic Church was not easy or complete.

• Despite of enlightenment and deist ideas, Rizal’s psyche has always been flavoured with Catholic religiosity.

SIGNIFICANT POINTS RAISED IN THE ARTICLE

• The influence of western thinkers (Kant, Voltaire, Rousseau, etc.)on the enlightenment of Rizal.

• Rizal’s transformation to being a deist and arguments against Catholicism evident in Rizal-Pastells correspondence.

• Rizal’s incomplete withdrawal from Catholic ways.

RELEVANCE/IMPORTANCE TO OUR SUBJECT

• It is important to know things about Rizal as he is one of the famous heroes of 18th century Philippines. Also with this article about his deism, we are able to form ideas and possible answers to the issue about Rizal’s claimed retraction.