The Middle Ages were not "a time of ignorance, barbarism and superstition"; the Church did not place religious authority over personal experience and rational activity;
Like hell it didn't.
and the term "Dark Ages" is rejected by modern historians
Because it's a prejudicial term, not because the past isn't fucking shitty.
Can you explain please ? I don't understand their sentence as it is. What's surprising to me isn't the present tense, it's the fact that it isn't negative.