Dear all,
A little time ago there was a thread looking at where the expression "the
age of faith" had originated. I too share the suspicion that this may go
back to the 18th century Enlightenment, and perhaps could be found,
implicit or explicit, in the writings of Auguste Comte and the positivists.
But then I was reminded of one of the ambitious works of synthesis of the
19th century, in the form of John William Draper's <A History of the
Intellectual Development of Europe>, first published in 1862. He was an
American scientist and historian who tried to apply physiological
principles to the evolution of human society, and he wen on to publish in
1874 <The History of Conflict between Religion and Science>.
In my copy of the (revised) edition of 1888 he divides the time line into
periods, mostly called "ages". Thus we have the Greek Age of Inquiry, the
Greek Age of Faith, the Greek Age of Reason, the Greek age of Intellectual
Decrepitude, the European Age of Inquiry. etc. About a quarter of vol.1 at
the end contains the European Age of Faith, continued in the first quarter
of vol.2 as the Age of Faith in the West, followed by the European Age of
Reason, and speculations on the future of Europe.
Draper's book was extensively translated and reprinted, so even if he did
not invent the categorisation he must have done much to spread awareness of
it.
Hope this proves of interest.
Cheers,
Brian Donaghey
Brian Donaghey - Dept of English Language & Linguistics, University of
Sheffield - Tel. 0114 22 20213
...nec bibliothecae potius comptos ebore ac vitro parietes quam tuae mentis
sedem requiro, in qua non libros, sed id quod libris pretium facit,
librorum quondam meorum sententias, collocavi.--Boethius I pr.5
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