Why was enlightenment theology so unenlightened?

Pseudo intellectuals thinking they knew something when they actually knew nothing.

It's still better than assuming that the Truth had just been revealed once and for all.

You have to learn to crawl before you learn to walk...

But, of course, the unmitigated optimism of the early rationalists was unwarranted. Then Kant came along and the natural language critics, and all these people... You can prove 6+6=12. You can't "prove" gravity is a force of attraction (or anything else about the outside world, for that matter.)

But unless you have pioneers that are willing to experiment with this, you'll never get there. What's wrong with admitting the process developped over time?

Enlightenment is only the understanding of who one is. When one truly knows their real self, one can see through the delusions caused by attachment to the physical world and the ego. Without attachment, one can see the beauty and necessity of all things, pain and pleasure, and appreciate one for the other, for there must be both. But I digress, this is only one thing that helps explain a small part of enlightenment.

Unless you were talking about Christian and other spiritual western ideology in the enlightenment period, in which I would be more prone to agree with you.

One may seek enlightenment, but never find it. It is the journey, not the goal.

Taoist/Atheist (seeking)

Yeah.

i like how the second half of your Q describes the first half

They didn't have the luxury of the internet to point out to them when they were being dumbasses.

All theology is unenlightened.