JCA 1:1 (Summer 1997) p. 5 modernism.3 Because of this fact, it may be helpful to provide some definition to the ideas of “premodern” and “modern.” “Premodern” is the term used to describe that phase of Western civilization wherein people still believed in the supernatural. The premodern period is reckoned as the period prior to the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century.4 Both individuals and the culture as a whole believed in God (or gods) and the principles that lead to the expression of orthodox