Intellectual periodis tend to be influenced and shaped by the periods which preceded them. In this respect, the Enlightenment is no different. Renaissance Humanism, the Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution all levied challenges towards the preceding intellectual traditions of Medieval Europe, and the Enlightenment would further build upon that influence.

Renaissance Humanism carried with it a focus on the individual and on civic engagement within the bounds of temporal life (in contrast to Medieval thought, focused as it was on theological concerns, and on the primacy it placed on one's life in the Church).

Meanwhile, the Protestant Reformation and the Scientific Revolution both contained at their heart an attack on tradition. The Protestant Reformation undermined the authority of the Church and argued for the primacy of scripture in shaping religious teaching and practice. Reformers also called for the translation of the Bible into vernacular languages so that laypeople would be able to access the text.

The Scientific Revolution, on the other hand, envisioned a more progressive vision of knowledge entirely, by which knowledge could be methodologically built up and expanded across generations. In this respect, it differed greatly from both Humanism (which still tended to look towards the Classical World for inspiration) and the Reformation (with its focus on scripture) in that it eliminated those appeals to authority altogether. This progressive vision, which looked towards the future rather than the past and held that a body of knowledge could be systematically constructed across time, proved highly critical in shaping the thought of those writers and thinkers associated with the Enlightenment.

I would say that Enlightenment thought emerged within this larger context. Highly individualistic and progressive, thinkers of the Enlightenment prized rationality as a tool for creating social and political progress. In some ways, however, it's important to be aware of the points in which these connections break down. For example, consider the Reformation, which involved a religious devotion which Enlightenment thinkers would have abhorred and a theological focus they would have disdained. But by and large, they did emerge within a specific point in time, and they were certainly influenced by those cultural and intellectual currents which preceded them.

The Enlightenment was an extension of many of the ideas of the Renaissance and Reformation.

The first element of this is religious. The Reformation and the rise of Protestantism broke the stranglehold of the Roman Catholic Church on Europe. Protestantism was inherently anti-clerical, arguing for the importance of Scripture and personal faith in salvation, rather than insisting that salvation was exclusively mediated by Church ritual and hierarchy. This led to pressure for increased freedom of religion and emphasis on personal conscience, something that was increasingly important in the Enlightenment.

In studying classical and religious texts, the Renaissance and Reformation were associated with a return "ad fontes" (to the origins), which meant seeking early manuscripts and studying them in historical context in their original languages. This led to the scientific, historical, and philological studies of the Enlightenment and the rise of altertumswissenschaft (the science of antiquity).

The Renaissance admiration of ancient Rome led to interest in the Roman Republic as a political model, something that led to the movement for democracy in the Enlightenment. The early modern period was the beginning of the rise of the bourgeoisie.

The Renaissance, in casting off scholasticism, marked the beginning of modern science. Modern science was grounded in reason, observation, and experiment, as found in such figures as Bacon, Copernicus, and Galileo. These scientific advances led to the expansion of science in the Enlightenment and the application of scientific method to humanistic, social, and political issues.