Age of Enlightenment:

Jonathan Israel rejects the attempts of postmodern and Marxian historians to understand the revolutionary ideas of the period purely as by-products of social and economic transformations. He instead focuses on the history of ideas in the period from 1650 to the end of the 18th century, and claims that it was the ideas themselves that caused the change that eventually led to the revolutions of the latter half of the 18th century and the early 19th century. Israel argues that until the 1650s Western civilization "was based on a largely shared core of faith, tradition and authority".

Please answer a question about this article. If the question is unanswerable, say "unanswerable". What does Israel argue Western civilization was based on until the 1650s?
largely shared core of faith, tradition and authority