Return to the Home Page: The Spiritual Pilgrim Western Cultural History to 1900: An Introduction The Greek Quest for an Ideal Order The Hellenist Quest for Universal Order The Roman Quest for Material Order The Christian Quest for Universal/Eternal Spiritual Order The Roman-Christian Synthesis: 'Christendom' The Collapse of Rome - and the Western 'Dark Ages' (early 400s to mid 1000s) The High Middle Ages (mid 1000 to mid 1300s) The Renaissance (late 1300s to early 1500s) The Religious Reformation (early 1500s to mid 1600s) Political Realignment (mid 1600s to mid 1700s) The 'Age of Reason': Modern Science and the Rise of Secularism (late 1600s to late 1700s) Mounting Tensions: Royal Absolutism vs Bourgeois Intellectualism (late 1600s to late 1700s) The American and French Revolutions (late 1700s) Shifts in the Social-Political Setting (early to mid 1800s) Cultural-Spiritual Ferment: Romanticism / the Doctrine of Progress The Rising Spirit of Nationalism and Imperialism (late 1800s)