The History Hour

Renaissance Consciousness: humanism, secularism, emancipation

The show's host continues to narrate Western European historical change in consciousness, from medieval through Renaissance and Reformation, or the century from 1450 to 1550. Jeanes refers to a dark age in the period 1550 to 1650, an era of religious wars and church persecutions, before the age of the Scientific Revolution. William Thompson, an historian, recognizes that Dark Ages precede the rise of a new stage of consciousness or mentality.
The host reads a review of Charles Taylor's newest book, A Secular Age.
Jeanes takes issue with the lack of any depth of knowledge of concrete History -- of Europe, Asia or other cultures -- in the study by the major theorists of evolving consciousness, Dr. Don Beck and Ken Wilber. Including all cultures on earth from 500 BC to 1500 AD in one category called "traditional religious" or the Blue mentality, is not sufficiently nuanced.