Although religious unrest had been brewing in Western Europe long before Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, historians view this event as the tipping point that shattered the unity of the Medieval Catholic civilization. Disillusioned by Church bureaucracy and awakened by the rise of Renaissance Humanism, Western Europe was primed for an alternative to the old order. Protestant reformers called for a return to scripture and a focus on individual faith, and the Catholic Church responded with a new focus on spirituality that culminated in the Council of Trent. In modern spiritual revivals, religious debates, and newer Church reforms, we can still see the legacy of the era Linder calls Midwife to the Modern World.

By 1813, in an area originally inhabited by Native Americans, including a significant Delaware Indian village located on White Rivers western banks, the future Greenwood was made safe for settlement by the Kentucky and Indiana militias. In 1818, with the New Purchase treaties and establishment of Whetzel Trace, the earliest east-west transportation route through central Indiana, the dense, overgrown forest became readied for settlement. Arising from humble beginnings as Smocktown, the community was officially named Greenfield in 1825, followed by renaming to Greenwood in 1833. The territory has seen tremendous growth through the decades since John B. and Isaac Smock arrived, transforming the land from a pioneer village into a contemporary hub of business and industry. Accused of being a bedroom community of Indianapolis, Greenwood strives to maintain its relevance as a unique and historically proud community.