It is generally taught that the Enlightenment happened between 1680 and 1800 and that this time therefore is “the age of Enlightenment”. While the church had prevented the development of reason and progress during the “dark ages”, so the story goes, because the heroes of the Enlightenment employed reason (in contrast to the Christians who submitted to the Bible and to authority), the natural sciences developed, philosophy came to flourish, and freedom of opinion and freedom of religion were introduced. This talk will demonstrate that there is nearly no truth in this widespread and powerful story. It was created in order to make the church look anti-rational and in order to make the ground infertile for the gospel. More generally, it will criticise the tradition of approaching history in terms of “epochs” and “progress” and sketch an alternative, Christian approach.
