The Reformation is supremely about a return to “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). But a “return” to the light of the gospel implies at least two things: (1) the light had already been given and (2) the people had drifted away from the light and into darkness. 

While historians today prefer to avoid the label “Dark Ages,” and certainly not all was dark, the characteristic of the period between Augustine and the Reformation was, from a biblical perspective, theologically darkened. It is related to the “Middle Ages,” a designation that was first used toward the end of the sixteenth century with derogatory overtones. It suggested a stagnant and unfruitful era situated in the middle of two enlightened ones (the light of Scripture marking either side). A fuller description is offered by M’Clintock:

The barbarism of this period may be said to have begun about A.D. 510, when the barbarians had made an irruption into the West very prejudicial to the interests of literature. Learning was preserved in the bishops’ schools and monasteries: the works of ancient authors were kept in the libraries of the monasteries, but the libraries of monks and churchmen were composed chiefly of ecclesiastical and ascetic works. Greek literature was generally neglected, Latin but poorly cultivated; rhetoric was turned into bombast, the liberal arts comprised within a few rules, and the study of philosophy abandoned and decried. This barbarism almost extinguished the light (hence the name “Dark Ages”) and life of Christianity.[1]

It was the lack, not the influence, of biblical Christianity that resulted in darkness. It has well been said, “these Middle Ages are often called the Dark Ages, because of the ignorance of the people concerning the spirituality and power of true Christianity.”[2]

The Most Important Matter

The most important factor in any situation is our view of God—so it is with the Dark Ages. The Church’s view of God and man’s relationship to Him is the principal matter in understanding why such an extended period of time was so dark.

Though many factors were at work (the fall of the Roman Empire to the Franks, Goths, and Vandals, and the seventh-century military invasion of Islam, etc.), if we are to look at the Dark Ages through the right lenses, the emphasis must be on theology. No individual or group of people will ever live higher than what they value most. As goes a people’s perspective of God and man, so goes their practice. This is no less true for the Dark Ages.

The most compelling contribution to that millennial darkness, indeed the leading factor, can be traced to the Church’s obscuring drift away from the light of the gospel—after light, darkness. The most important matter has to do with what the official Church did with the written Word of God and the gospel it contains. The light had dawned at the advent of Christ: “the light has come into the world,” but just as in Christ’s day, “people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19). The Reformation invented nothing; it simply returned to the light. Though the reformers were sinful men, God raised them up in the truth of His Word to make Christ known for His glory. In this way, we may apply another verse: “whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God” (John 3:21). May it be clearly seen that the Reformation was a true coming to the light and that it has been carried out in God.

Some of the key contributing factors that served the Church’s drift into a period of darkness include the following:

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