I am reading The Age of Reconnaissance by J. H. Parry (Cardinal, 1973) and this has led me to think about the ways in which different historical ages are named.  I recently heard a historian point out that the Middle Ages were in fact the final or end days for those who lived in them.  They saw so many things we seek to understand in naturalistic terms as signs of God's work and of the impending end of the world.  This refers us to very concrete details of an age, to what was seen to be at w...

I am reading The Age of Reconnaissance by J. H. Parry (Cardinal, 1973) and this has led me to think about the ways in which different historical ages are named.  I recently heard a historian point out that the Middle Ages were in fact the final or end days for those who lived in them.  They saw so many things we seek to understand in naturalistic terms as signs of God's work and of the impending end of the world.  This refers us to very concrete details of an age, to what was seen to be at w...