Truth and Knowing

There are three ways we can know things and the ways are Cognitive, Empirically, and Revelation.  Cognitive are things that we know intuitively or without learning such as hunger.  Empirically refers to what we’ve learned though sensory experience or observation. While Revelation is the revealing of God’s truths to us.
 Throughout history, different philosophers believed different things.  Herodotus was a Greek philosopher who believed that the world is in constant change, therefore there is no way to obtain knowledge or truth.  At the same point of time Parmenides, another Greek philosopher, believed that the world is constant, and knowledge cannot be obtained through senses, but through reason.
Plato believed that there were two layers of the world.  One is revealed to us by our senses, and is real.  The other is constantly changing, and the reality of that layer is an illusion.  Aristotle believed the same thing as his teacher Pluto, though while Plato believed that universal forms were not present in material things, Aristotle believed they were.
Around the time of the eleventh century, Thomas Aquinas played an important role in helping define what we know.  He helped define the relationship between nature and grace and helped rekindle the love for learning. 
From 1200-1500 AD, there was the time of the Aristotelian Revolution.  It was the time in which Thomas Aquinas's teachings on Grace and Nature became popular.  Aquinas believed that there was an upper story and lower story of the world. The upper story is of God and heaven, and the lower story Material seen things.  Man tried to find a balance of belief of both Nature and Spiritual things.  Because of this search, the Renaissance started, and the scales were tipped towards Nature.

Because of the Renaissance, the lower story became more important than the upper story and humanism came into motion.  Now it was man defined his truths and his morals instead of looking to God.

The result of theology, philosophy, and art becoming "autonomous" in scope was that  Artist, theologians, and philosophers began to depict reality the way they saw fit, regardless of God and scripture.
Then the period of Reformation Started and began to restore proper balance between Grace and Nature, and got rid of the “religiousness “ that had run the church during the time of the Renaissance.
Reformers of the time included Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others.  They believed that the bible was the only thing that could give knowledge of God, and it is Christ alone that can give us salvation.
Due to the rebirth of culture through Reformation, education, arts, and just government all flourished.