I now turn to a detailed discussion of the alleged legacy of the middle ages in the context of the work of Hans Blumenberg. Blumenberg begins his monograph The Legitimacy of the Modern Age with a discussion of the meaning of secularisation. Blumenberg is interested in the status of the modern age. This obviously leads to a contrast with pre-modern ages, in this case the Christianity of the middle ages.

When one contrasts the middle ages with the modern era it seems clear that our world has undergone a process of secularisation, which Blumenberg points out is incomplete, and that this is a condition of our being able to discuss it at all.[7] In other words, if the process of secularisation had been completed, then perhaps it would not be on the horizon of thought.
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This is the introduction to Kenneth Wilson’s thesis “A Social and Environmental Philosophy”

Parts One and Two of this thesis explore the traditional themes of action (agency) and rationality (reason) in a somewhat non-traditional fashion. I have put these traditional themes to a non-traditional use because the overall aim of this thesis is to solve a problem which is quite recent in origin; namely, what I will refer to as the crisis of modernity. Specifically, the crisis of modernity resides in the real possibility that as a consequence of our actions in the world, the future of life on Earth may well have been brought into question. Read more…