The Era of Faith

Five speeches from a millennium shaped by faith and empire. 632CE. In Muhammed’s farewell address, he lauds his people for their achievements and virtues, and gives them his final instructions for living within the faith. In 1095, Pope Urban II’s Against The Infidels speech launches the Crusades, which lasted for another two hundred years. In it the Pope exhorts his clergy to make true the promise of Christianity and rise against their weaker natures and the enemy in the east. Pico della Mirandola’s Oration On The Dignity Of Man has been described as “the manifesto of the Renaissance”, and is an introduction to his 900 Theses, which was the first printed book ever banned by the Church. Written in 1486, it weaves together philosophy and theology from across history and the world. While Christian, it is a review of the philosophies and religions of the ages. The first section details man’s supremacy over all other beings but God, due to his inherent mutability. The second section dives i