History 102 with WhatifAltHist's Rudyard Lynch and Austin Padgett

Explaining the Protestant Reformation

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Nov 15, 2024

Explore the transformative impact of the Protestant Reformation, linking it to modern societal shifts. Discover how the printing press revolutionized knowledge access, paralleling today's internet challenges. Delve into the rise of individualism as a response to diminishing church authority. Learn about the intricate relationship between the Catholic Church and political power. Reflect on how historical events continue to shape contemporary ideologies, emphasizing the struggle between humanism and authority in our modern landscape.

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INSIGHT

Psychological Shift of the Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a major spiritual and psychological shift in Europe, even without significant border changes.
It represents a leap in human agency and individualism, crucial for the modern world.

INSIGHT

Information Revolutions

The printing press in the 1400s and the internet today both revolutionized information access, challenging established authority.
Both eras saw a struggle between individual agency and gatekeeping of information.

INSIGHT

Catholic Church and Literacy

The Catholic Church's view of the public as children was accurate in the Dark Ages due to widespread illiteracy.
The printing press and capitalism empowered individuals, leading to dissatisfaction with the Church.

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A Secular Age

Charles Taylor

In 'A Secular Age', Charles Taylor explores the transformation of Western society from a pre-modern world where belief in God was inescapable to a modern secular age where believing in God is just one option among many. Taylor argues against the 'subtraction story' of secularization, which posits that religion has been removed from society. Instead, he describes a complex historical process involving the Reform movement in Christianity, the rise of disciplinary society, and the emergence of exclusive humanism. The book examines how these changes have affected the conditions of belief and unbelief, and how they have shaped modern social forms, moral orders, and spiritual experiences[1][3][4].

Doubt

Alec Ryrie

Protestants

The Faith That Made the Modern World

Alec Ryrie

Rise of the West

William H. Mcneill

In this book, McNeill challenges the Spengler-Toynbee view that separate civilizations developed independently. Instead, he argues that human cultures have interacted at every stage of their history, with major social changes triggered by new or newly important foreign stimuli. The narrative is divided into three parts: the beginnings of civilization in Mesopotamia to 500 B.C., the cultural balance of Eurasia from 500 B.C. to 1500 A.D., and the era of Western dominance since 1500 A.D. McNeill highlights the interplay between cultural, political, and economic factors of each civilization and how they influenced each other. The book also includes a retrospective essay where McNeill discusses how his work was shaped by the time it was written and suggests revisions based on subsequent developments in historiography[2][4][5].

The Reformation

Will Durant

This volume of 'The Story of Civilization' by Will Durant chronicles the history of European civilization during the period of the Reformation, from 1300 to 1564. It covers the schism within the Roman Catholic Church, the formation of early Protestantism, the theology of Martin Luther, the rise of Humanism and the life of Desiderius Erasmus, and the royal monarchies of England, France, Spain, and Italy. The book also discusses the imperial conquests of Christopher Columbus, the discovery of the Americas, the Bohemian revolution in Eastern Europe, the unification of Russia, and the rise of the Ottoman Empire. Durant provides a balanced view of the religious and political changes of the era, including the teachings of John Calvin and the Counter-Reformation of the 16th century.