Enlightenment, Dark Ages, Wow

Though this pun is very obvious and not quite as entertaining as most would see it, it does tell a lot in truth about the order of these movements.  With the Dark Ages, there was a heavy fixation on another form of what was essentially the Renaissance.  Perhaps it was because of the drowning feeling of nothing but intangible concepts.  The people needed abstractness in religion to come to a deeper focus, one of solid answers.  For this reason, the Enlightenment began - a bit of a release from the abstract and a more solid basis for finding straight answers.