What was the enlightenment and why was it so important for europeans and the rest of the world?

The Enlightenment was a sprawling intellectual, philosophical, cultural, and social movement that spread through England, France, Germany, and other parts of Europe during the 1700s. Enabled by the Scientific Revolution, which had begun as early as 1500, the Enlightenment represented about as big of a departure as possible from the Middle Ages—the period in European history lasting from roughly the fifth century to the fifteenth.

The millennium of the Middle Ages had been marked by unwavering religious devotion and unfathomable cruelty. Rarely before or after did the Church have as much power as it did during those thousand years. With the Holy Roman Empire as a foundation, missions such as the Crusades and Inquisition were conducted in part to find and persecute heretics, often with torture and death. Although standard at the time, such harsh injustices would eventually offend and scare Europeans into change. Science, though encouraged in the late Middle Ages as a form of piety and appreciation of God’s creation, was frequently regarded as heresy, and those who tried to explain miracles and other matters of faith faced harsh punishment. Society was highly hierarchical, with serfdom a widespread practice. There were no mandates regarding personal liberties or rights, and many Europeans feared religion—either at the hands of an unmerciful God or at the hands of the sometimes brutal Church itself.

The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, however, opened a path for independent thought, and the fields of mathematics, astronomy, physics, politics, economics, philosophy, and medicine were drastically updated and expanded. The amount of new knowledge that emerged was staggering. Just as important was the enthusiasm with which people approached the Enlightenment: intellectual salons popped up in France, philosophical discussions were held, and the increasingly literate population read books and passed them around feverishly. The Enlightenment and all of the new knowledge thus permeated nearly every facet of civilized life. Not everyone participated, as many uneducated, rural citizens were unable to share in the Enlightenment during its course. But even their time would come, as the Enlightenment also prompted the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, which provided rural dwellers with jobs and new cities in which to live.

Whether considered from an intellectual, political, or social standpoint, the advancements of the Enlightenment transformed the Western world into an intelligent and self-aware civilization. Moreover, it directly inspired the creation of the world’s first great democracy, the United States of America. The new freedoms and ideas sometimes led to abuses—in particular, the descent of the French Revolution from a positive, productive coup into tyranny and bedlam. In response to the violence of the French Revolution, some Europeans began to blame the Enlightenment’s attacks on tradition and breakdown of norms for inducing the anarchy.

Indeed, it took time for people to overcome this opinion and appreciate the Enlightenment’s beneficial effect on their daily lives. But concrete, productive changes did, in fact, appear, under guises as varied as the ideas that inspired them. The effects of Enlightenment thought soon permeated both European and American life, from improved women’s rights to more efficient steam engines, from fairer judicial systems to increased educational opportunities, from revolutionary economic theories to a rich array of literature and music.

These ideas, works, and principles of the Enlightenment would continue to affect Europe and the rest of the Western world for decades and even centuries to come. Nearly every theory or fact that is held in modern science has a foundation in the Enlightenment; in fact, many remain just as they were established. Yet it is not simply the knowledge attained during the Enlightenment that makes the era so pivotal—it’s also the era’s groundbreaking and tenacious new approaches to investigation, reasoning, and problem solving that make it so important. Never before had people been so vocal about making a difference in the world; although some may have been persecuted for their new ideas, it nevertheless became indisputable that thought had the power to incite real change. Just like calculus or free trade, the very concept of freedom of expression had to come from somewhere, and it too had firm roots in the Enlightenment.

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1. intercessory weapons

“god is looking for somebody, a wall builder; somebody who can prevent calamities and avert disasters through importunate tears of supplication,” writes father oforka. “such wall builders attend the divine council and, like spiritual attorneys, passionately argue their cases in order to achieve their purpose.”

an example of an intercessory warrior is moses in the old testament. “moses acted as a bridge between god and his people. that was an office that god called him to when he appeared to him in the form of a burning bush. he therefore respects both moses as his faithful servant and his office of mediation between him and his people,” father oforka writes.

how does intercession play a role in our lives today, as the spiritual battle rages on still? “we must go back to our roots and repossess the right of attending the divine council through the ministry of intercession,” father oforka explains. we intercede through prayer, petitioning for others before the throne of god.

2. the name of jesus 

“there is something in the name of jesus that is awesome and fascinating,” father oforka writes. “hence, the quiver of the intercessory cannot be complete without it.”

saints paul, peter, and john write extensively about the power of the name of christ. no one can make demons subject to him without the name of christ.

in the early church, justin martyr wrote, “for every demon, when exorcised in the name of this very son of god – who is the first-born of every creature, who became man by the virgin, who suffered, and was crucified under pontius pilate, who died, who rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven – is overcome and subdued. but though you exorcise any demon in the name of any of those who are among you – either kings, or righteous men, or prophets, or patriarchs – it will not be subject to you.”

3. the power of praise 

praise is a underrated arrow in the quiver of a christian. “it’s important that intercessors should learn the power of praise,” writes father oforka. “a group of prayer ministers may gather for hours praising god and soaking the air with divine waves. . the father cherishes it when his awesome deeds are recounted and his person is addressed accordingly.”

what does this have to do with spiritual warfare? “at those times when the thick clouds of evil begin to gather, when the smoke of satan begins to blur our view and choke our breath, intercessors might opt to descend into the bright cloud of praise, invoking these awesome names, instead of a mournful prayer-fight.”

heaven can’t resist soulful praise of the faithful – and satan can’t stand to hear god praised here on earth.

4. the fire of the holy spirit

the fire of the holy spirit has a two-fold purpose in the life of the spiritual warrior. “it could be used as both an offensive and a defensive weapon,” father oforka explains. “it is like the word of god, which is double-edged and therefore dual in purpose.”

we often see god through the medium of fire throughout the old testament. he appears to moses in a burning bush, and as a pillar of fire through the desert wanderings of the israelite nation. in his letter to the hebrews, saint paul writes that god is an “all consuming fire.”

5. the eucharist 

in the gospel of john, christ says: “very truly i tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life within you.” the institution of the eucharist is an event recorded meticulously by three of the synoptic gospels and saint paul.

when catholics worship in the mass and receive the body of christ through the eucharist they can “draw more strength than he can image,” explains father oforka. “an intercessory, who identifies with jesus in the eucharist, can handle difficult cases. he does not just end with the invocation of this treasure. he must, as often as possible, be part of the sacrifice of the mass through which this power flows.”

hope this and i hope i answered in time!

good luck!

~ destiny ^_^

democracy

explanation: