Humanism And Christianity

Humanism and Christianity

The Renaissance was a time period which originated in the city-states of Italy that marked the starting point of the modern era. The Renaissance was characterized by a rebirth of interest in the humanistic culture and outlook of classical Greece and Rome. During this time period, a secular attitude was achieved, thus causing Western Civilization to deviate from the strict religious atmosphere of the Middle Ages. Although religion was not forgotten, it was no longer the sole influence of scholasticism and the like. This secular attitude eventually paved the way for things such as the Scientific Revolution. Despite this secular humanism, Christianity still influenced the humanists of the Renaissance, including the "father of humanism" Ð'- Petrarch.

Humanists believed that a refined person must know the literature of Greece and Rome. They strove to imitate the styles of the ancients, to speak and write as eloquently as the Greeks and Romans. Toward these ends, they "sought to read, print, and restore to circulation every scrap of ancient literature that could still be found." (Perry 18) This literary humanism was central to the early Renaissance. The trend, which originated in northern Italy during the fourteenth century, represented a shift in focus from other worldly concerns and people as religious beings, which was typical of the Middle Ages, to the problems of people and nature in this world. In a 1362 letter to Boccaccio, Petrarch wrote: "Neither exhortations to virtue nor the argument of approaching death should divert us from literature; for in a good mind it excites the love of virtue, and dissipates, or at least diminishes, the fear of death." Humanists strongly believed that only good could come of the wisdom they acquired through the manuscripts of the ancients, and they were keen to share it with the rest of the world.

"Christianity during the Renaissance presents a contradiction: although the institution of the Roman Catholic Church was in decay, there was extraordinary religious fervor in every part of Europe." (Colton 56) Preachers, such as the highly popular Girolamo Savonarola of Florence, called on sinners to repent and enjoyed great success in Italy. A mystical religious movement that drew, in part, from the teachings of German mystic Meister Eckhart flourished in the portion of western Germany known as the Rhineland. Its members sought direct revelations from God without the church as an intermediary. In the Low Countries of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands a movement known as the devotio moderna emphasized individual and practical faith, a contrast with the more communal and metaphysical faith of the Catholic Church. These teachings spread through schools and gained public attention through The Imitation of Christ (1424), a highly influential work usually attributed to Thomas Ð" Kempis, a German monk and writer. Eager laymen built churches and chapels, and new devotional exercisesÐ'--such as the Stations of the Cross and prayers using the rosaryÐ'--became popular. With the introduction of the printing press in Europe during the 15th century, religious books were produced by the millions, and they found a ready market. The increase in popular devotion posed a threat to traditional religion, especially when the prestige of church officials was low and they seemed incapable of, or uninterested in, close supervision of the faithful. This resulted in popular heretical movements which emerged and challenged papal authority.

Due to the emergence of secular humanism in the Renaissance, these heretical movements