THE SUNDAY SERMON
by OneVike
In lieu of my sermon this week, I have decided to present the first part in a series of five articles about the great Protestant Reformation. In this series I will present various historical aspects I believe worked together to create the atmosphere needed for the Reformation to take place. I do not mean to diminish the contributions of any of the many individuals or events that will be left out of my series, but in order to be as concise as possible I will inevitably fail to give proper credit to some. I believe the six areas I have settled upon cover most of what is needed to make my point. The five part series will include:
1.) An Introduction and Overview of the Renaissance
2.) The Political and Social changes of the times
3.) Literature
4.) Art, Exploration, and Inventions
5.) Conclusion
An introduction and Overview of the Renaissance
Never in history has one man's thesis so rattled the powers that be than did Martin Luther's when he nailed his ninety-five grievances to the Church door at Wittenberg. It was an act of defiance that would eventually topple a church state organization that held sway over kings and paupers alike for a thousand years. And while every history class that covers the reformation will tell you that it was Johann Tetzel's selling of indulgences that pushed Luther into action that day, Tetzel's action was only the final straw, not the cause of the revolution. At the time the Reformation began, there were many factors that enabled and emboldened the common man into action but none was more profound in it's influence then was the Renaissance.
Encyclopedias and history books all seem to point out that the word Renaissance is French for "rebirth". However, the Italian painter Giorgio Vasari was probably the first person to describe this era as the
The Renaissance started in southern Europe or the Italian city-states while the Reformation started in northern Europe or Germany. There is a debate as to whether the Renaissance ended when the Reformation started, or continued up to the Age of Enlightenment. To make things even more interesting the Renaissance started at different times in various parts of Europe. There are also numerous dates given as to when the Renaissance took place, and depending on your source it started anywhere from 1300 to 1450. I believe the Renaissance originally began around 1350 in the Italian city-states of Florence, Genoa, Milan, Venice, Verona, and Siena. Although through different means and sometimes with ulterior motives, it would spread to France, Germany, England, Spain, and other parts of Europe.
After many centuries of what they considered intellectual and cultural decline, Europeans thought they had rediscovered the superiority of Greek and Roman culture and came to the conclusion that their own cultural achievements rivaled those of antiquity. This thinking was influenced by the concept of humanism, which emphasizes the worth of the individual. The Renaissance humanists believed it was possible to improve human society through classical education that relied on teachings from ancient texts and emphasized a range of disciplines including poetry, history, and moral philosophy. This period of history is marked by great achievements in art, literature, inventions, explorations, and an increase of trade from the eastern Mediterranean lands that led to a rebirth of knowledge and understanding of foreign lands and cultures. While the Renaissance man's hunger for understanding his world led some to engage in self satisfaction that set him free from the churches morals, others searched for a deeper understanding of the scriptures to get closer to what the gospels taught. All this took place during a time of social and political upheaval that would lead to the end of the state bowing to the pressure of the church.
My next article will show how the political and social changes of the Renaissance led to the end of the feudal system, triggered a capitalist-based society, and set the stage for a revolution that would ultimately create new religious, political, geographical boundaries in Europe.
To conserve space, I am not posting documentation of my research. If someone desires documentation for any of my claims, I will gladly give you a copy of my complete Bibliography.
You never cease to amaze us. Your Bible wisdom is par excellance'!
OV do you think the Muslim faith has evolved to defining point that we could call it an Islamic Reformation? If so, when and how? I realized this may be an unfair question, because you are a Christian scholar, but your opinion would be appreciated none-the-less.
OV do you think the Muslim faith has evolved to defining point that we could call it an Islamic Reformation?
I am not sure I completely understand what it is you are asking. If you mean do I think the Islamic religion is now having it's own kind of reformation on par to the Protestant reformation that led to reestablishing Christianity back to what Christ meant it to be, then I would have to say it looks as though it could be. Let me explain.
We must first realize what the world perceives as the Islamic faith, because what it thinks of Islam is not the Islamic faith that Muhammad started. See, the Islamic religion is a false religion based upon one very evil man's idea of what he wanted out of this world. Once he established himself as the most powerful warlord in the area he started to conjure up schemes to get what ever he desired by claiming he had visions. Islam has always been based upon the false premise that it is equal to Judaism and Christianity by claiming to follow the same God.
The problem is the god Muhammad followed was the Moon god, not Jehovah as the Jews or Christians follow. At a time when warlords controlled various areas of the Middle East by means of the sword, Muhammad realized he needed to get men to follow him before he could take on the other warlords. He started by accepting the Moon god as his god and slowly gained followers who would help him challenge other warlords. Through the years he became very successful in defeating he rivals one by one. As he became more powerful he began to use his religion to exert his rules.
As the fear of him grew so did his religion, and before long he demanded that his enemy's accept his god or they die. Well if you could not defeat him and wanted to live, you joined his religion and accepted his rules. History shows how long before the Crusades were even considered, Islamic leaders would decapitate the heads of all the men in a city if they did not accept his religion. It was quite normal for there to be piles of thousands of heads outside a city after it was defeated by the Muslim army.
Whole Christian and Jewish populations of towns were wiped out and the women became slaves to his soldiers for whatever purpose they desired. However, through the years the Islamic leaders found that they could not defeat everyone one so they began to get along with other cultures and live more peacefully.
However, in the last 40 years many Muslim Clerics have begun reasserting the teachings of Muhammed and calling for the death af all who will not accept Islam as their faith. This is what many in the west call the extreme fundamentalists. But if you read the Quran, you will see that these exremests are doing excatly what Muhammed said to do.
So I guess you could say the Islam is having it's reformation because it is reverting to what it originally was, but do not expect the MSM, the government, or even many of the liberal Christian groups in America to admit this.
One more thing I want to pint out, the Protestant Reformation met with extreme violence and it's leaders were attacked by the Church and some Monarchs. What we see in this Islamic reformation if you will, is the leaders of this movement killing anyone who stands in their way, like foreigners and the old Muslim guard that got along with other religions and replacing them with what we see in Al-Qaida, Hizbullah, Hamas, Al-Jihad, and others strict followers of Muhammad's writings.
I just returned from Church and I must get ready for a message I will be giving this afternoon, so I just wrote this off the top of my head. I would need to do a bit of investigating to really do your inquiry full justice, but I hope this helped.
OV you are indeed a master of theology! And yes, that is exactly what I was asking, thank you very much for your answer. It sheds a lot of light on things happening today.
I'm always impressed when someone can study a certain thing and have such a command of whatever it is, like Christianity or could be rocketry or literature, it's the fact you've taken it to that high level few others have gone. I think that's outstanding.