The Ever-unfolding Marriage of
Loewenmensch and Venus of Hohle Fels
It started slowly, bubbling up through the mosaic floors, and leaking beneath the inlaid doors, of the 17th century. Neither sandbags, nor tarps, nor monogrammed toweling – nor the gilded vestments of the supreme church, could stem the flow of the words of the Enlightenment. The talk was of reason and logic and the unheard-of thought of an individual’s right to authority over their own being.
How could there possibly be a consummate culture when only a minuscule portion of the extant population was able to fully participate? Thus, flushed by the inexorable tide of new scientific discovery and secular thought, the struggle for an equitable and educated society, what some might characterize as the criteria for a civilization, had begun.