When used without capitalisation, ‘enlightenment’ means simply ‘understanding’.

However, the term ‘The Enlightenment’ is used in a special sense to denote a 17th & 18th century awakening of western European intellectuals to the power of scientific reason, which many saw as opposed to religious faith. This intellectual movement, ‘The Enlightenment’, was the historical origin of a ‘secularism’ that was often hostile to all religion, which it saw as ‘unreasonable’.

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