Essay about The Influence of Humanism in the Renaissance

The Influence of Humanism in the Renaissance For centuries, people looked to religion for the answers to their greatest questions. The Church had a firm grip of how people viewed the world. Gods will was to be followed without question and any attempt to explain a phenomenon without Gods involvement was heresy. When the Renaissance began to spread across Europe, the qualities of humanism became more prominent. Scientific and rational analysis was becoming of great interest compared to supernatural explanations. Renaissance world-view can be characterized by a growing humanistic orientation that can be demonstrated by analyzing cultural artifacts from the era. Humanism created an interest in the Classical Latin and arts of past†¦show more content†¦Meant to impress and awe its observers, it again in bodies the image of the beauty of the human body. Its large size, exaggeration of the length of the arms and hands, along with the contraposto pose, shows how quickly humanism ideas had spread with the Renaissance. At first, humanism was actually thought by some to be a way of validating and supporting the Church. With man being viewed as the measure of all things, and man being created in the image of God, it would be shown how God is perfect in every way. Pico della Mirandolas literary work Oration on the Dignity of Man is a clear example of how the early goal of humanism was to create a better understanding of God, stating how humanity is the apex of creation, creating a link with the world of God and of the creation (Cunningham 24). However, as the sciences began to contradict what the Church taught the public, humanism began to be painted in a more pagan light (Kreis). Copernicuss assertion that Earth was not in fact the center of the universe, going back to a Greek theory that the Earth and other planets orbit the sun. This was met with great refusal by the Church as it seemed to completely contradict the teachings of the Bible (Cunningham 86). It is interesting to note how up to this point scientists had simply submitted to the Church that in some instances, everything is exactly how it appears. The departure from this again shows humanism was promoting the importance of scientificShow MoreRelatedHumanism And Influence During The Renaissance1582 Words   |  7 Pages The Renaissance began in Italy during the 1300s in which a of rebirth of the arts, economy, science, and culture of Europe occurred. Before this time, during the Middle Ages, war and disease precluded advances in art and literature and the p owerful influence of the Catholic church limited significant advances in science and philosophy. The Renaissance took influence from classical Greek and Rome and expressed and expanded upon many of the ideas of that time. 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