The Renaissance and Humanism Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research Pape

The metempsychosis and HumanismYou may wonder about, The conversion and its relationship to an opposite term, humanitarianism which fits into the same time period. If you check the dictionary, you will find that both harm can be used in a broad soul or more than preciseally. Humanism refers generally to a devotion to the liberal arts literary culture. (My interpretations come from Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary). According to that definition we should all be humanists. The other general meaning is the one that disturbs the fundamentalists who snipe secular humanism a doctrine, attitude, or steering of life refer on human interests or values especially a philosophical system that usually rejects supernaturalism and stresses an individuals dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization by dint of reason. This definition places human beings at the center of the universe, capable of finding their way by human reason without the help of a supernatural God. It c omes at a lower place attack from two sides--on one hand by those who defend sacred values, on the other by some members of the scientific community who fancy humans as a kind of accident in a world without purpose. Humanism can also refer to a specific happening in history the revival of classical letters, individualistic and overcritical spirit, and emphasis on secular concerns characteristic of the Renaissance. The phrase characteristic of the Renaissance shows how ambivalent is the relationship between the two terms, humanism and Renaissance. In other words, which term is the broader, encompassing the other? We associate both with the revival or rebirth of Greco-Roman civilization. Both have been broadened to include more than that. The more specific meaning of the Renaissa... ...oser to Erasmus position. Perhaps Mennonites have tended to teach grace and conk out by works. Grierson suggests that Spensers Fairie Queene comes closest to the spirit of Luther because of its em phasis on grace whereas Miltons paradise Lost and Paradise Regained reminds us of Erasmas--of the responsibility of humankind to make a new earth (26). In conclusion, I believe that each coevals must examine the conflict (real or imagined) between the desire for sport and religion, for the answers are neither simple nor abstract. Each renaissance period requires a reworking of our responses. Works CitedAbrams, M. H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol I. 5th Ed. New York W.W. Norton, 1986. Grierson, Herbert. Cross-Currents in 17th coulomb English Literature The World, he Flesh, and the Spirit. New York Harper & Brothers, 1958.