“Since eighteenth century writers employed reason to discredit Christian dogma, a "rationalist" in common parlance came to mean an "unbeliever"… But this use of the word is unfortunate since it obscures the fact that reason may be employed to support faith as well as to destroy it.”

The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-century Philosophers (1932)

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Carl L. Becker 25
American historian 1873–1945

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