PHILOSOPHY OF THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD

Plan

1. Characteristic features of Renaissance. Humanism and anthropocentrism.2. Ideology of Reformation.3. Natural philosophy and philosophy of natural studies.

1. Characteristic features of 1. Characteristic features of Renaissance. Humanism Renaissance. Humanism and anthropocentrismand anthropocentrism

The term "Renaissance" was given currency in the 19th century by the Swiss historian Jacob Jacob Burckhardt.Burckhardt. In his book, published in 1860, "Civilization of the renaissance in Italy" he argued that the 14th and 15th centuries witnessed a true revolution in values and emphasized the contrast between the church-centered culture of the middle ages and the new sense of the primacy of personality of that country.

The central concern of the cultural Renaissance was to develop a system of education that would do exactly that. One minor branch of the medieval educational curriculum, rhetoric, or the art of good speaking and writing, was specifically concerned with the skill of communicating well.

Renaissance Humanism was marked by three principal characteristics. First, it rejected the emphasis that the medieval schools placed on professional training, whether in theology, law, and medicine and advocated a liberal education, based on knowledge of moral philosophy and a command of eloquence. Second, Humanism stressed the supreme importance of the Latin language (later, Greek also) and the Classical authors.

Third, Humanism affirmed the possibility of human improvement through education and study. Ideally, individuals should develop to the fullest all their specifically human faculties - physical, moral spiritual, aesthetic.

Francesco PetrarchFrancesco Petrarch (1304 – 1374), Italian poet and philosopher, known for the Canzoniere, a sonnet sequence in praise of a woman called Laura. He possessed an immense enthusiasm for educational reform and for scholarship. He sought to save from neglect the ancient authors preserved in monastic libraries and launched an eager search for their manuscripts, a pursuit that was to become an integral part of the humanistic movement. To Petrarch, the ideal human type was the one who spent a life in the study of letters, enjoyed them, and cherished them and found God in them.

A near-contemporary of Petrarch was Giovanni BoccaccioGiovanni Boccaccio (1313 – 1375). His greatest work, the collection of short stories known as "The Decameron“.

U. ZwingliU. Zwingli - Swiss protestant reformer, the chief figure of the Swiss Reformation. His ideas gained strong support in Zuich but met with fierce resistance elsewhere; he was killed in the resulting civil war.

In spite of all the achievements of the Renaissance, analysis of this period in Italy and in northern enables us to make the following conclusions. Renaissance was typified by the return to classical values of the antique heritage, which on the other hand, resulted into growing interest to pagan cults, mythology, astrology, alchemy, etc. Spread of Humanism resulted into proclamation of man as the highest value, put in the center of all the world outlook problems, but the natural or physical man was implied, not the spiritual one.

2. Ideology of Reformation2. Ideology of Reformation

Medieval Church

Church Authority

–The Catholic Church , was the only Church in Western Europe.

–The Bible was only to be read by Priests or Bishops.

–Church services were only in the Latin Language.

Life of a Monk

Community WorkPrayerRestPenanceWork in the

MonestaryMeals

Changing role of the Catholic Church Abuses in the rituals and practices of the church such as training average priests and appointing relatives to church positions Celibacy of the priests Worldliness of the church and church officials

– Bishops, Archbishops, Priests owning a great deal of property and acting very wealthy including having affairs outside of the church.

Practice of Simony– Paying for a church office (buying your office)

Lay investiture– appointment of church offices by rulers instead of church officials.

Heresy – – Speaking out against the doctrine of the church. (Inquistions throughout

Europe) Indulgences

– Payment for sin– Good deeds, property and often during this period simply gold or silver

(visit to a cemetery considered good deed)

Pope Leo X (r. 1513-1521)

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Educated and trained as a Catholic theologian

His “95 Theses” and the challenge on indulgences

Development of his thinking leads to excommunication (1520)

Background to the Reformation

Ongoing abuses within the Church– The “training” of average priests– The privileges of church leaders

• Pluralism• Nepotism• General worldliness

Literacy and print culturePolitical changes

Europe in the Reign of Charles V

Luther’s Thinking Develops and ideas spread after 1517

Three Significant Pamphlets (1520)– Address to the Christian Nobility of the

German Nation– The Babylonian Captivity of the Church– Freedom of a Christian

Two Major Doctrinal Innovations– Sola Fide (By Faith Alone)– Sola Scriptura (Scripture Only)

The Role of Print Culture in Spreading Luther’s Thought

Luther at the Diet of Worms (1521): “I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise.”

Luther Seeks Refuge with Duke Frederick of Saxony

German princes harbor Luther as challenge to papal role in politics

Charles V unable to respond initially due to other concerns

Luther translates Bible into German

Jean Calvin (1509-1564) Catholic priest who

converts in 1534 and flees to Geneva

Brief time in Strasbourg with Martin Bucer

Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536): Predestination

Return to Geneva, the center of Reform in late-16th century

Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531)

Based in ZurichScripture as the only

authorityNon-sacramental

liturgy(They’re Symbols)

Marburg Colloquy (1529) dispute with Luther

Dies in Battle during Swiss civil war

Anabaptists: Radical Reformers

“Re-baptizers”: Bible a blueprint for society

Conrad Grebel & the Swiss Brethren -- Schleitheim Confession (1527)

Thomas Muentzer claims Luther sold out

Muenster Experiment in 1534-35

Menno Simons advocates pacifism (Mennonites)

Based in Zurich Scripture as the only authority Non-sacramental liturgy(They’re

Symbols) Marburg Colloquy (1529) dispute

with Luther Dies in Battle during Swiss civil

war

The Catholic ReformationCharles V tries negotiation, then force

– Schmalkaldic League: Protestant princes come together to defend themselves

• Defeated in 1547 at Mühlberg– Peace of Augsburg (1555): Cuius regio, eius

religio. “Reform in the bones”: New Foundations

– Capuchins – Ursulines– Jesuits: The shock troops of Catholic reform:

education and advisors to rulers

Pope Paul III Recognizes Ignatius of Loyola

Catholic Propaganda Against Luther

The Catholic Reformation (“Reform in the Head”) Initial response is to ignore

– Fifth Lateran Council (1513-1517): “Men are to be changed by, not to change, religion.”

Paul III (r. 1534-1549)– Interesting blend of old and new– Places reformers in the curia– “Advice of the Reform of the Church” (1537)– Sets up Roman Inquisition (The Holy Office

in 1542)– Calls Council of Trent (1545-1563)

The Council of Trent (1545-1563)Reaffirmed Old Doctrines

– Authority in tradition AND Scripture– Church seen as sole interpreter of Bible– Salvation through faith AND works– Affirmed distinction between laity and priesthood– Rejected predestination

Improved training of priests and required bishops to spend time in their dioceses

Encouraged missionary zealRepressive measures as well: Inquisition and “The

Index”

Sorting Through the Doctrinal Differences

Sources of SalvationAttitude towards SacramentsRole of the ClergyRelations between Church and State

Religions in Europe ca. 1560

Huguenots (French Calvinists)2,000 Congregations (ca.1561)

To the 16th century European, the most momentous revolution of the time was not the growth of royal power, the rise of prices or the discovery of new lands overseas, but the movement that destroyed the West's religious unity: the Reformation. Two sides began to form, to be called Catholic and protestant.

Martin LutherMartin Luther (1483 – 1546) was born into a simple worker family in Saxony in central Germany. The boy received a good education and decided to become a lawyer, a profession that would have given him many opportunities for advancement. But in his early twenties, shortly after starting his legal studies, he had an experience that changed his life. Crossing a field during a thunderstorm, he was thrown to the ground by a bolt of lightning, and in his terror he cried to St. Anne, the mother of Mary, that he would enter a monastery. Although the decision may well have been that sudden, it is clear that there was more to Luther's complete change of direction than this one incident. He was obviously a man obsessed with his own sinfulness, and he joined an Augustinian monastery in the hope that a penitential life would help him overcome his sense of guilt.

The many advances in Luther's thinking thereafter came ultimately from this insight: that justification - expiation of sin and attainment of righteousness through a gift of grace - is achieved by faith alone.

In "An Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation", he made a patriotic appeal to his fellow citizens to reject the foreign pope's authority.

"The Babylonian Captivity", the most radical, attacked the system of the seven sacraments (baptism, confirmation, matrimony, the eucharist, ordination, penance, and extreme unction), the basis of the Church power. In "The Liberty of Christian Man" Luther explained his doctrine of faith and justification, stressing that he did not reject good works, but only the faith of the individual believer could bring salvation from an all - powerful, just and merciful God.

The Luther's teaching was apparent in the two fundamental assertions. First, faith alone - neither good works, nor the receiving of sacraments - justified the believer in the eyes of God and wins redemption.

Second, the bible is the sole source of religious authority. It alone carries the word of God, and Christian must reject all other supposed channels of divine inspiration: tradition, commentaries or the pronouncements of popes and councils.

The one systemizing force among the various Protestant movements in the 1530-s was the creation of a second - generation reformer, John CalvinJohn Calvin (1509 – 1564). French Protestant theologian and leader of the Reformation. On becoming a Protestant he fled to Switzerland, where he established the first Presbyterian government, in Geneva. Born in Noyon, northern France, he studied both law and humanities at the University of Paris. In November 1533 Calvin was indicted for heresy, so that he took refuge in the Swiss city of Basel. There in 1536 he published a little treatise, "Institutes of the Christian Religion", outlining the principles of a new system of belief.

3. Natural philosophy and 3. Natural philosophy and philosophy of natural philosophy of natural

studies. Crisis of studies. Crisis of humanism and beginning humanism and beginning

of the machine civilizationof the machine civilization

Anti-scholastic character of the Renaissance philosophy resulted into development of pantheism, as the essential feature of all the natural studies. It is a belief that God and the universe are identical.

One of the most famous representatives of the natural philosophy of the Renaissance was German cardinal of the Catholic Church, mathematician, mystical theologian and philosopher Nicholas of CusaNicholas of Cusa (1401 – 1446). His philosophical system was based on the Neoplatonism, however transformed according to the Christian dogmas. The central point of his philosophy is a doctrine about identity of absolute maximum and absolute minimum, what became a precondition to grounding the theory of the infinite universe and creation of the heliocentric model of the world.

It was Nicolaus CopernicusNicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543), Polish astronomer and philosopher, who proposed that the sun is the center of the solar system, with the planets orbit the sun, rejecting the established view that the Earth was the center of the universe."On the Revolution of the Heavenly Bodies" by him had far great consequences.

Giordano BrunoGiordano Bruno (1548 - 1600), an Italian Renaissance philosopher, made an attempt to unite both the dialectical idea of the identity of opposites of Nicholas of Cusa and the heliocentric system of Nicolaus Copernicus. His doctrine is the most radical in the Renaissance period.

Under the influence of Copernicus he evolved a naturalistic and mystical pantheism, where the universe was as infinite as God.