Renaissance and Reformation

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What were the causes and results of the Italian Renaissance? Is it synonymous with humanism?

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The Italian Renaissance was fueled by the rediscovery of Classical science and literature, leading to a revival in arts and humanism, which emphasized secular humanistic studies over medieval theology. Economic growth from trade and banking also played a role, as did the societal shifts following the Bubonic Plague. While not synonymous, humanism was central to the Renaissance, focusing on rationality and human potential, influencing both art and the eventual Protestant Reformation.

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In terms of the Renaissance, one could say that humanism was the spark that lit the flame. It was humanism—which in this context means the rediscovery of ancient learning—that inspired this great flowering of Western culture, especially in relation to the arts.

For centuries, Western man had been cut off from his cultural ancestry in Ancient Greece and Rome. But with the discovery and transmission of ancient writings the link between Western man and his ancestors was reestablished, with truly dramatic consequences.

The nature of the Renaissance in all its manifestations was to put man, as opposed to God, at the center of the universe. That's not to say that Renaissance thinkers, scholars, and artists were atheists; far from it. It's just that the relationship between God and man was now conceived in a totally different light from what it had been in the Middle Ages.

The Renaissance was still...

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very much a God-intoxicated age. But those involved in this great cultural movement sought to glorify God by exulting humankind. Through great works of art and ground-breaking scientific discoveries alike, Renaissance man sought to become more God-like, learning more and more about the world around him, the better to control it. This human-centered philosophy provides us with another meaning of the word "humanism": a system of thought centered on the rational, autonomous self.

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The most elemental cause was the revival of Classical science and literature followed by a revival of Classical art. Humanism in the Italian Renaissance was anchored in this revival and its attendant emphasis on studying "humanistic" writings, literature, and art. "Humanistic" in this sense stands in opposition to "divine," which is the study of theology, the study that preoccupied all interest in the Medieval period. The meaning of "Humanism" has expanded much over time and come to mean far more than it originally meant wen the thinkers of the Italian Renaissance rediscovered learning and expression that was not theology-centered.

http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/Renn.html

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Just prior to the Renaissance, Italy had become, once again, the major trader between West and East.  As trade flourished, the economy grew and fortunes were made.  Capital allocation, or banking began in earnest.  As more people became wealthy, and didn't have to focus on necessities for survival, their interests turned to the artistic, and the system of patronage expanded.  Trading, along with its increased wealth, also unfortunately brought the Bubonic Plague in 1347.  The resulting deaths (in some areas one-third died) created an agrarian labor shortage -- demand and cost for labor increased; no farm-hand was ever again tied to the land, and that helped to finally demolish the feudal system.  For those who survived the plague and their immediate descendants, the philosophical focus shifted to the enjoyment and comprehension of life. Italy, having its economy restructured, having survived the Plague, and possessing wealth from trade, began the rebirth of Europe.

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One of the unintended causes of the Renaissance was that it led to the Protestant Reformation. During the Renaissance, there was a buzz word, "ad fontes." This meant back to the sources. They wanted to bypass the layers of tradition from the Medieval ages and get back to the glories of the classical world. Therefore, during this time, there were great developments in philology and other disciplines surrounding the classical world. In time, this idea of "ad fontes" took root in the church. Protestant wanted to get back to the church fathers and bypass the traditionalism of the Catholic church.

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One way to think of the Italian Renaissance was as an effort to find the common ground between Christianity and the teachings of the Greek and Romans, especially the ancient classical philosophers and poets. Using the rubric you have provided, I would then say this:

Cause: one cause was the growing rediscovery of, and interest in, ancient classical texts.  For a good recent study of this phenomenon, see The Swerve, by Stephen Greenblatt.

Nature: desire to reconcile Christian teachings with ancient classical ideas. This desire sometimes ran into problems (as Greenblatt shows), but the writings of Petrarch (for example) are far more typical of the Renaissance than the writings Greenblatt examines. Petrarch is perhaps the best exemplar of a "Renaissance man" in almost all the senses of that term.

Results: a growing number of texts and thinkers who were educated in the classics and saw the relevance of the classics to their lives as Christians.

Humanism: a growing emphasis on living virtuous lives in the here and now, as members of civic communities, rather than focusing as strongly as in the past on the importance of the heavenly (or hellish) afterlife.

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The Italian Renaissance was basically a cultural change.  It was a change from a focus on the supernatural to a focus on rationality and human beings.  We can see this, for example, in the paintings of the time in which there was a much greater emphasis on the human form (think Michelangelo" even though the paintings were of religious subjects.

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