Under the overarching question of legitimacy, the individual parts of this book analyze self-contained thematic complexes regarding the constitution of modernity through a critique of the fundamental concept of secularization, which aimed to both liberate the self-understanding of modernity and secure its backward ties. It inquires into the conditions for the emergence of an epoch from its predetermined circumstances. The entirety of the work seeks to capture the forming modern age from the impulses that arose from the collapse of the Middle Ages and led to a concept that was strictly opposed to its expectations. The obligatory theme of the entire work is the relationship between reason and history.