How far is it true that madness before the enlightenment is understood in primarily religious terms - Essay Example

This period was to see a great positive shift in tyranny, ignorance, superstition and to build a good reputation in the world (Macdonald, 1981). With this plan, the enlightenment had hereditary domination by aristocrats and religion as their sole targets. The logic behind the Enlightenment period is all about Christianity as far as religion is concerned. From Italy to England to France, this major vibrant religion had its ideas affect day-to-day lives of many. Ideally, there would not have been any form of enlightenment without Christianity.

Churchmen almost had equal rights and powers as emperors and many other rulers that existed then with some privileges being exemption from paying taxes (J. Schmidt, 2007). Philosophers, thinkers and scholars like John Locke and Voltaire sparked the enlightenment. Other significant names during this period were Isaac Newton, who was a great physicist and later recognized as father of modern physics, and Baruch Spinoza. These are just but a few intellectuals who saw religion as a “cage” that bared man from success and development.

They also articulated scientific revolution, which would later spread overseas to the rest of the world (Jeremy Schmidt, 2007). Popularly known as the “Dark Ages,” this movement brought logical positivism to people. Life initially had been all about God and that the rupture is uncertain when the pure in heart would be live in Heaven forever. Because of this, intellects were to be the elites of their time as they acted sources of credible information (Allen, 2008). There was an overall rise in ideas based on empiricism and credible philosophy hence their application in a variety of areas like biology, physics, chemistry and political economy.

All these theories attacked the church and the state directly. Christians today have the question of possibly knowing the truth as their main foundational philosophical challenge. The human mindset has taken two dimensions in our society today. Either one is of relativism or skepticism. Relativism is based on the statement that there is really no fixed truth. Skepticism on the other hand says the truth lives but we cannot know it (Midelfort, 1999). As preachers spread the word across the entire world, these two mindsets affect all the claims of truth for Christians of these days.

Religious Perceptions about God Way back before Enlightenment God was like sunrise. Choosing the path of God was seen as a way of having all human questions answered and accompanied problems solved amicably. Christianity had its feet on the Bible as a way of knowing God. Bibles were Holy books from which people got the relevant knowledge they needed to stay close to their creator. The Old Testament was in its capacity a form of ‘constitution’ that had all solutions to political questions.

Historical events were seen as a service to God’s will and they were understood to work according to God’s plan (Feld, 2011). Storms, floods and heavy rains were believed to be a form of “communication” from a supernatural being. Therefore, these events were not just chances. God was always involved ever since He created the world with everything in it many years before Christ with man being the highest level of His creation. Christ was the son of God who lived among the people, brought the Godly message, and later ascended to Heaven.

To this there was a strong belief will be a last Judgment when Christ will return and few will be chosen for an eternal life. This, to some, made the