Changes

Most likely when you learned about the Middle Ages in history you became familiar with it’s dubious nickname: The Dark Ages. This nickname was bestowed upon the years directly following the collapse of the Roman Empire (6th/7th century) and up until the beginning of the Renaissance, which eventually bore the Early Modern Period or Enlightenment. So then, the story supposedly goes like this: Western Europe was trapped within the clutch of tradition and religion until a “rebirth” (or renaissance) in which ancient philosophical texts were newly discovered and translated into Latin (making them available for study). The eyes of the people were opened, they revolted against the system (which is more or less synonymous with Christendom) and began studying philosophy and scienceagain which allowed for the scientific revolution. Such a narrative depicts the Middle Ages as a period of philosophical and academic poverty, which could not be further from the truth. Furthermore, religion hardly served as a impediment to such philosophical inquiries, but was a stimulus for them. So, it will be the aim of this short essay to give brief sketch of the intellectual landscape as it specifically pertains to Christendom in the Middle Ages.