The Middle Ages and the Reformation were centuries of faith in the sense that reason served faith, the mind obeyed authority. To a Catholic it was church authority; to a Protestant biblical authority, but in either case God’s Word came first, not man’s thoughts. Man’s basic concern in this life was his preparation for the next. The Age of Reason rejected that. In place of faith it set reason. Man’s primary concern was not the next life, but happiness and fulfillment in this world; and the mind of man, rather than faith, was the best guide to happiness—not emotions, or myths, or superstitions.
