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The Rise of Humanism since the Renaissance of Europe
A term paper on the roots of Humanism
The Rise of Humanism since the Renaissance of Europe
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Humanism
Humanism is the idea that a higher power is not superior. People who believe in humanism reject religion and instead believe that the church does not hold all the power, but people and humanity do. Humanism started during the Renaissance Period around the 14th century.
During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was the major power and influence over the European continent. The kings, queens and other leaders allied with the church to gain more power. Normal citizens in Europe had to give up 10 percent of their earnings each year to the Church which in effect made the church even more powerful and rich. Those who spoke out against the Church were accused being crazy. They were often punished. The church would burn them at the stake in front of the townspeople.
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The years between the 14th and 16th centuries (Renaissance Period), was a time of great social, cultural, and economic change.
People were characterized by creativity, innovation and new ways of thinking. It was a period of questioning and discovery. People started to think independently and began creating great works of art, literature, and architecture. As more and more advancements were made in the arts and sciences, the Catholic Church’s power started to decline. It once held all the power over people’s beliefs about the world.
I don’t think that humanism can be applied to religion because humanism itself is a philosophy. It taught people to be their own person and think independently, not supernatural forces controlling history. A belief that people should have the right to think and make decisions freely cannot be applied to
religion.
The religious people were the most gluttonous people of those times. They would take the money that they said they did not have, and spend it for their personal gain. The Catholic church in the Middle Ages is not the one the congregation would have preferred. Geoffrey Chaucer did a great job in pointing out just how corrupt the leaders of the church could
During the Renaissance, people were dedicated to studying human works. They would observe from real life to gain inspiration, new ideas, and to try to recreate the world as they saw it in their art. New techniques such as scientific and atmospheric perspective were created, changing art forever. Artists would use their skills to create works for patrons, from the Church, various guilds, and other religious orders. During the High Renaissance, Julius II commissioned Raphael to decorate the Vatican Palace. The first of the rooms he decorated was The “Room of the Signature”, where he painted The School of Athens. Originally, this room housed Julius II’s personal library, but later on it would be the room where papal documents were signed. In 1508, Raphael began painting four frescoes that represented theology, philosophy, law, and the arts. As stated in Janson’s History of Art Volume II, This fresco “represents a summation of High Renaissance humanism, for it attempts to represent the unity of knowledge in one grand scheme.” Raphael’s The School of Athens is a prime example of humanistic art, as evidenced by the subject of the art itself, the classical elements in the piece, and it’s scientific and illusionistic rendering.
Humanism is a philosophy that involves the search between truth and morality, through humans means in support of human interests. Humanism rejects transcendental justifications, such as the supernatural and divine disclosure. A common form of this rejections would be The Bible. This philosphy also tends to be even-handed, seeking to make all people equal in terms of wealth and social status. The movie advocates all of these features of humanism.
During the renaissance, there was a renewed interest in the arts, and the traditional views of society came into question. People began to explore the power of the human mind. A term often used to describe the increasing interest in the powers of the human mind is humanism. Generally, humanism stresses the individual's creative, reasoning, and aesthetic powers. However, during the Renaissance, individual ideas about humanism differed.
The renaissance lay dormant in the minds of men from the 13th and 14th centuries. Their work was considered heretical and they were burned at the stake. The repression of the 13th and 14th centuries was undone as the power of the church and its scholastic knowledge was transferred to any literate men with access to a local printer's workshop and money to buy a library of ancient works that were now being copied at incredible speeds. This created a threat to the doctrinal power of the church which gave way to a scientific revolution. The new power of scientific knowledge and the engines that it was to build was a subject of two of the greatest playwrights of the period, Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. Marlowe identified the perceived threats that came from irreverence of the church and tradition. Shakespeare wrote a play that focused on the great promise that the renaissance turned out to be. Many in power feared that the promise of returning to old ideas was actually a demonic illusion of prosperity which undermined traditional doctrine. Others enjoyed the thought of the new power that might be enjoyed from conquering distant lands and using the old books as tools to master earth.
Before the 16th century Protestant Reformation, Christianity it Europe was in a questionable and somewhat corrupt state. During the mid 15th century central and western Europe was set up in the form of a hierarchy, which was headed by the pope. At this period in time the pope claimed all spiritual authority over Christians, as well as political authority over all inhabitants of the Papal States. In addition to the claims the pope made, the church also owned close to one-fourth of the land in Europe that lead to a strong centralization of papal authority. Close to all of the Europeans at this time were Christian and would pay taxes directly to the church as a result of this ownership. European Christians were taught in their upbringing that without the guidance and rituals of the priests and the church, there would be no path for them to salvation. Despite the church attempting to teach morality among members, the clergy started to become greedy and full of corruption that fueled their desire for ...
And this is where Humanism can in. Humanism was the belief that man has beauty, worth, and dignity. Humanism was not a religious or philosophical stance, but a form of scholarship: humanists were united in their enthusiasm for and interrogation of documents, but they disagreed profoundly about the meaning and value of those documents (Spence 56). From the first beginnings of the printing press, humanist writers showed active interest in the new technology and saw it as a means to disseminate the texts of ancient and modern literature and learning ( Ashcroft 3). So Humanists was trying to tell the people that life on earth should be cherished. The Catholic rulers wanted to extend their power and control everything in the Church. The Reformation ended the Catholic Christianity. Their religion was for everyone in the church. So Martin Luther argued and challenged the pope and the Catholic Church. Luther argued that the Bible, not the Pope, determined God’s word. But later on the church forgot about Martin Luther and his ideas. Many Humanists was changing the mind of many people in the church. The idea was to have the people thinking that the church was beauty and worthy instead of sin and control. In other words, they wanted to people to think less about God and the afterlife. But more about themselves and how the world is now. The
Humanism means a field studying human behavior and creations. During the Renaissance, humanism became an important driving force behind the much socio-cultural behavior, and therefore was a major influence on art and artistic production.
Seeing that the government or society as a whole couldn’t provide a strong authority figure as the church did, people innately were pulled into the church. The Catholic Church provided a place where they were had to a higher standard and placed each citizen in their own place in society. The hierarchal structure of the church gave the impression of stability and strength, because if people had an awareness of an obvious power structure they would be more likely to rely on it. Beginning with the Pope, who presided over the entire Catholic faith, then the Bishops whose jobs were to look over the parishes or a region, and then finally the priests who presided over individual churches, the hierarchal nature of the church was very organized and elaborate. The structure of the church allowed for the accountability of the parishioners to be greater because they had to go through many different layers before they could get to God. This dependence of people, during the middle ages, on the Church, stemmed directly from the Migration Periods turmoil’s from lack of political stability and the structure that the church could provide which all led to the power that the church held during the Middle
During this time the Church was in control of the commercial and economic endeavors of the bankers and merchants. They began to realize that the more money and power the Church was allowed to handle, the less control the people had. The people began seeking a more secular solution for the acquisition of their own monetary earnings. The thought process was essentially that of cutting out the middle man; remove the Church's involvement and the power would be returned to the people. This was only the beginning of the dangerous criticisms thrown at the Church. During this time people were becoming angry with hypocrisy being openly displayed. It was not uncommon for a priest to marry and then take mistresses, or the clergy to auction off religious offices to the highest bid. Corruption in the Church was no longer a whispered dispute, it had become an open exhibition of adulteration. Long gone were the days of loyalty and reverence, the Church had become a depraved image of authority and rule, not only in Europe, but France and Italy as well. People were steadily leading revolts against the economic and political control of their cities as well as objecting to the social and religious standards being forced upon them. While the Enlightenment did affect the view of the Church, it led to its own disgrace by constructing an
The start of the Protestant Reformation marked the turn of people away from religious schools of thought and the embracement of ideas that one could deduce independently. The spiritual guidance that people had previously had based their entire lives around was shown to be corrupted and false and they set out to discover their own conclusions about existence. Out of this effort arose humanism, "a philosophy that rejects all supernaturalism and relies primarily upon reason and science, democracy and human compassion" (American Humanist Society). Humanism or rationalism to some extent supposedly allows people to explore their thoughts and emotions, better comprehend reality, and stay in tune with facets on the modern era, such as science and technology. Lord of the Flies by William Golding attacks this philosophy, stripping it of its almighty “logical basis” and offering no praise of gratification. Throughout the course of the novel, the embrace of reason frequently leads to the misunderstandings, sins, and stigma. In Lord of The Flies, Golding destroys the idea of modern humanism as a form of salvation for humanity, describing it instead as a naive and frivolous delusion, leading people further away from the true meaning of life and closer to chaos and animalistic tendencies.
It focuses on personal growth, self-actualization, and the development of values. Humanism considers the feelings, needs, goals, capabilities, and limitations of individuals.
Humanism was a reactionary philosophy as it was a response to the crisis of the fourteenth century. Between plague and famine, human loss was rampant throughout the fourteenth century Europe. As a result, there arose a new need to understand the relationship between man, the world, and God. Humanists were literary scholars interested in Greek and Latin writings, grammar, history, and ethics. They believed that ethics
During the middle ages, the church developed into an elaborate hierarchy and the pope was was the leader and he had all the power. The Catholic church played a major role in everyday life in Europe. It’s purpose was to help people spiritually and served as a form of government. (http://www.csis.pace.edu/grendel/projs2c/middle.html) The Catholic church had it’s own land, laws, and imposed taxes. As the church grew, so did its
According to Encyclopedia.com humanism is, “ a philosophical and literary movement in which man and his capabilities are the central concern.” While this simple definition certainly does convey the essence of the movement, it does no justice to the whirlwind of artistic and intellectual inspiration stirred up by it. There are many forms of humanistic philosophy in today’s society, but the origin of this school of thought traces its roots back to the days of the scholars of ancient Greece and Rome. It was the revival of and renewed interest in Greco-Roman culture around (during the western transition from medieval to early modern culture) that marked the beginning of the Early Renaissance. The humanists believed that the Greek and Latin classics contained all the lessons one needed to lead a moral and effective life. It was the profound respect for nature and scientific knowledge and of course the reevaluation of classical thought, literature, and art that gave the Renaissance its distinctively secular stamp. Many accomplished artists and intellectuals studied during the roughly 200 year period of the Renaissance, and while some are more recognized than others, it is their combined wisdom that created many of foundations on which modern society is based.