Alexander Pope Essay on Man During the Enlightenment, enormous emphasis was placed on the ability to think and reason. People of this era thought and reasoned on a variety of topics. Some people were preoccupied with the question of God, which led many to question the Church. Others were interested in the organization of the Universe and the place of man within this Universe. The first epistle of Alexander Pope's "Essay on Man" can be considered an articulation of the Enlightenment because it encompasses three major concerns of the people of the Enlightenment. The pope addresses man's ability to reason and think for himself, he questions the Church and the nature of Christianity, and he also speculates on man's place in the world, as a an integral part of the great chain of life. the Enlightenment also designated the age of reason. The Pope begins the first epistle by appealing to the reason of his audience. He writes: “Together, let us beat this vast field, / Try to open it, what a secret yield! » Pope encourages his audience to use the reason they have been given, to examine things that have been advised against. Reasoning about matters that have been kept secret. He then continues by writing “say first, of God above, or of man below, / What can we reason, if not from what we know? » Pope again addresses his audience's ability to reason. He tries to bring them to the 18th century, asking them to look for proof in the knowledge they receive, rather than allowing the Church to feed them all their knowledge.bodyOffer() In the Age of Enlightenment, people began to question the church for the first time. The Pope illustrates this when he writes: “no Christian thirsts for gold.” The Pope subtly questions the nature of Christianity and Christians by exposing their own sinful desire for material goods. His words are simple, but they speak volumes. Recognizing that these Christians sin and “thirst for gold,” he then wonders why a man is despised if he does not aspire to be a Christian, since Christians have a sinful nature like that of any other man. The Pope was not the only one to question Christianity and the Church. David Hume writes: "The truth of the Christian religion is less than the evidence of the truth of our senses..." Many writers of the Age of Enlightenment questioned not only Christianity, but also the Church in general..