The Renaissance Period Essay Example for Free

The conversion Period EssayThe period in time referred to as the reincarnation started in the late 1300s and existed by means of the 1500s. The term translates into rebirth, and describes the process of intellectual and cultural change that began in northern Italy and eventually do its panache to countries lying b arely north. In this era, Christianity began to evolve and branch into different directions, weakening the power of the church and takeing the disciplines of school of thought and science the freedom to take advanced routes encouraging scientific observation as opposed to craft faith, or reasoning (Gaardner 197, 202). These changes in Christianity, philosophy and science brought slightly the new ideas of renaissance humanism. When the power says, We articulate of renaissance humanism, since straightway after the Dark Ages in which every aspect of life history was seen through elysian light, everything once again revolved around man., he is rationalisein g how man has come to see himself in a new light.In the Dark Ages man viewed himself simply as a pitiful servant to theology, undeserving of whatever form of greatness. During the Renaissance, man saw himself not as a servant to God, but as an integral and more importantly, unique part of God and his greatness. Man began to believe that God existed everywhere and in everything, including himself, and so man could now celebrate himself and his individual achievements, which became the basis of the new cosmea view (Gaardner 197, 201). The new world view consists mainly of two things the way man viewed himself, and the way he viewed his surroundings. As previously stated, man viewed himself in a much higher light than in the previous era. He now overly had a new view of nature. Previously, the world had entirely been looked at as a flummox of preparation for the hereafter, but now it was looked at as a place to investigate and explore. there was an elicit environment of freedo m and exploration. Many race of the time were very aw ar that they were living in a special, exciting era of intellectual and cultural harvest-time, and they wanted to play an active role in it. This guide to huge advancements in all areas from the arts to the sciences, and to the ideal of the Renaissance man, the desire to be knowledge adequate in all of these areas (Gaardner 200, 201). There were three main technological developments that were necessary for the Renaissance era to come to life. The compass, which do navigation simpler and encour growd the exploration of new lands, accrual of new observations, and in establishment firearms, which gave the Europeans military power and made exploring the new lands safer, allowing them to easily overcome any native populations and most importantly, the printing press, which allowed people greater admission to all forms of information, promoting curiosity in the common person and encouraging the desire to know more, to explore, an d to ask headsprings about their surroundings.The printing press also took away the authority of the church as the only source of create verbally knowledge. All three of these developments came together to contribute to the spreading of the new world view over pertinacious distances, encouraging the growth of the Renaissance elbow grease and its ideals (Gaardner 198). The transition from a subsistence economic system to a m onenesstary economy also played a large role in the formation of the Renaissance era. The difference amidst the Renaissance economy and the economy in the Middle Ages was the formation of a large middle class. The formation of the middle class occurred during this time because at the end of the Middle Ages, large cities were fully developed, encouraging the growth of trade and commerce. A monetary economy with banking systems soon followed and the middle class was born, with people having the luxury to be able to buy the things that they needed or wanted.Th is type of system encouraged people to work harder and smarter, as opposed to feudalism, where working harder would not reap any individualised benefits. As the author puts it, This state of affairs rewarded peoples diligence, imagination, and ingenuity. New demands were made on the individual. This statement reflects the trademarks of individualism, experimentation and exploration that are present in the ideals of the Renaissance era (Gaardner 199). Another way that the printing press contributed to the Renaissance was by allowing the volume to be translated and printed in different languages. Prior to this, in the Catholic church, only priests and monks read the Bible, because it was only available in Latin. formerly it was translated and printed, an individual could read it for himself, and interpret what it said in his own way. This led to an emphasis on an individuals personal affinityship with God, and less of an emphasis on a persons relationship with his spiritual leader s. Eventually, it would lead to the Reformation (Gaardner 212). The author speaks of a new religiosity that developed during the Renaissance. He is referring to the fact that thoughts on God in his relation to the individual changed dramatically. Prior to the Renaissance, there was a belief that the priest was the only person who truly had a special relationship with God, so therefore it was entirely necessary for an individual to seek forgiveness from God through the priest.God was the only gateway to paradise, and the priest was the only gateway to God. Once the Renaissance was in progress, with its newly found importance of the individual and the office of the common person to read and interpret the Bible for himself, people began to feel that it was possible to have their own personal relationship with God with or without the betrothal of the church, which is a view that is still extremely popular today. This view was put forth by Martin Luther, one of the important contributo rs to the Reformation of the church during the Renaissance (Gaardner 212-213). Many of the new views on religion during the Renaissance were prompted by advancements in science. A new scientific method was developed during the Renaissance, and formed the basis for all of the technological and scientific advances that have been achieved from that point onward. The new method incorporated using your own senses and experiences to observe phenomena during experimentation. cardinal of the most important scientists of this time, in my opinion, were Galileo Galilei and Isaac nitrogen (Gaardner 202). Galiliei formulated the Law of Inertia, which states that a body in interrogative sentence or at rest remains in that state until an external force causes it to change. Galilei set up a simple experiment to observe what would happen when two forces acted on an purpose simultaneously. Through his observations, he found that despite what was commonly thought, an object that had been propelled into the air would follow a parabola-shaped trajectory. This would occur due to the off force of the propulsion of the object, combined with the force of gravity pulling the object down towards the earth (Gaardner 205-208). Newton used his own observations to formulate the Law of Universal Gravitation, which states that every object attracts every other object with a force that increases in proportion to the size of the objects, and decreases in proportion to the distance between the objects. He used his newly formulated law in conjunction with Galileis previously stated law and observations to explain exactly why the planets traveled in elliptical orbits around the sun.It is the result of two forces acting on an object simultaneously linear movement from the force applied to the planets during the birth of the solar system, combined with the movement towards the sun due to its gravitational pull. The combination of these two forces, as Galilei previously stated, is what creates t he elliptical movement. Newton was able to show that the same laws applied to every heavenly body in the universe, thereby proving that there was not a special set of laws that applied to the heavens, and a separate set of laws for the earth. This caused the people of the time to demoralize to question exactly what their place was in the universe(Gaardner 209-211). To this day, we are still making discoveries that lead people to question what their place is in the universe, and if their belief in God is logical or not. Scientists have made and are constantly on the verge of making some huge, definitely stunning advancements, and it inevitably causes people to further question what their place is in respect to the world, the universe and in God. For example, the issues of stem cell research, cloning, and the manipulation of genes are all very controversial at this time, because people are forced to see that man has the ability to create life in a lab, and that he displace go on to guide life in almost any direction he may choose, he can play God, as many people say. My own opinion on science is that it is something that must move forward.There is no reason to fear science. When I analyze each of the topics mentioned above, I can not think of any logical reasons why we should not proceed experimenting with them. They are simply processes that occur naturally already, we are only directing them to proceed in a manner that will be as beneficial to us as possible. As far as what this means for religion, faith will of all time be what it has continuously been faith. True faith is unshakeable, as mentioned by Gaardner in respect to Isaac Newtons belief that his findings only supported produce of the existence of of the great and almighty God (212). Who is to say that all of these magnificent discoveries and the intricacies on which they are establish are not guided by the hand of God? As to the question of our own age that we are living in, I think that in many aspects it is very similar to the Renaissance era. There is definitely a heavy belief in the importance of the individual, so much to the point that I think you could say there is a strong trend towards selfishness and indifference. I think this has been reflected especially in the area of the family unit, with the high rates of divorce and single parent homes. People no longer flooring their life decisions on what will be best for the family unit, but what will make me happy. There is also a similarity in that many people no longer feel the need to impact the church in their relationship with God. While most people still have a strong faith in God, or some form of Creator, church attendance has reached record lows. Some people believe that science has become the new religion, but I think that mankind will always feel the need to believe that he will somehow be allowed to continue on, as conclusion seems much too simple of an ending to the elaborate design of a human being and t he world around him. Despite our many similarities to the Renaissance, I think that our era can be defined as the Age of Technology. I believe this era began with the inventions of the computer and the internet. Like the printing press during the Renaissance, these two developments allow the rapid dissemination of information across vast distances. The discovery of these systems has revolutionized every area of science, allowing information to be rapidly computed and shared. I think that we are still in the very infantile stages of the Age of Technology, and we can only wonder what developments will arise by the time a new age begins. whole caboodle CitedGaardner, Jostein. Sophies World (188-215).