Chapter 15: Cultural Transformations
Hello and welcome back to another blog post. In this post, we will be looking into Cultural Transformations during the early modern era. We will also give focus on Religion and Science.
The Globalization of Christianity
- Despite its Middle Eastern origins and its earlier presence in many parts of the Afro-Asian world, Christianity was largely limited to Europe at the beginning of the early modern era.
- Christendom became one of the biggest religions which spread around the world, emphasis on Europe and the Middle East.
-Western Christendom Fragmented: The Protestant Reformation= The Protestant Reformation shattered the unity of Roman Catholic Christianity, which for the previous 1000 years had provided the cultural and organizational foundation of an emerging Western European civilization.
-Christianity outward bound: Christianity motivated European political and economic expansion and also benefited from it. The resolutely Catholic Spanish and Portuguese both viewed their movement overseas as a continuation of a long crusading tradition, which only recently had completed the liberation of their countries from Muslim control.
- Conversion and Adaption in Spanish America: The decisive conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires and all that followed from it-- disease, population collapse, loss of land to Europeans, forced labor, and resettlement into more compact villages created a setting in which the religion of the victors took hold in Spanish American colonies.
- An Asian Comparison: China and the Jesuits= The most obvious difference was the political context. Although the transition between the two dynasties in China namely, The Ming and Qing dynasties, occasioned several decades of conflict. China's political independence or cultural integrity was at no point threatened by the handful of European missionaries and trade workers.
Persistence and Change in Afro-Asian Cultural traditions
- African religious ideas and practices accompanied slaves to the Americas
- Common African forms of religious revelation: divination, dream interpretation, visions and spirit possessions
- Expansion and Renewal in the Islamic World: Continued Islamization was not usually the product of conquering armies and expanding empires. It depended instead on wandering Muslim holy men or Sufis, Islamic Scholars, and itinerant traders, none of whom posed a threat to local rulers.
- China: New Directions in an Old Tradition
- India: Bridging the Hindu/ Muslim divide
A New Way of Thinking: The Birth of Modern Science
- While some Europeans were actively attempting to spread the Christian Faith to distant corners of the world, others were nurturing an understanding of the cosmos at least partially at odds with traditional Christian teaching.
- Why in Europe?: Europe's historical development as a reinvigorated and fragmented civilization arguably gave rise to conditions particularly favorable to the scientific enterprise
This is the end of the blog post for Chapter 15! I find it interesting, how science came to be and I've always wondered why, when tracing back it's roots, leads to Europe. I mean, out of all places? But my questions have now been answered. I hope you learned a lot in this chapter, and I'll see you in the next blog post!
The Globalization of Christianity
- Despite its Middle Eastern origins and its earlier presence in many parts of the Afro-Asian world, Christianity was largely limited to Europe at the beginning of the early modern era.
- Christendom became one of the biggest religions which spread around the world, emphasis on Europe and the Middle East.
-Western Christendom Fragmented: The Protestant Reformation= The Protestant Reformation shattered the unity of Roman Catholic Christianity, which for the previous 1000 years had provided the cultural and organizational foundation of an emerging Western European civilization.
-Christianity outward bound: Christianity motivated European political and economic expansion and also benefited from it. The resolutely Catholic Spanish and Portuguese both viewed their movement overseas as a continuation of a long crusading tradition, which only recently had completed the liberation of their countries from Muslim control.
- Conversion and Adaption in Spanish America: The decisive conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires and all that followed from it-- disease, population collapse, loss of land to Europeans, forced labor, and resettlement into more compact villages created a setting in which the religion of the victors took hold in Spanish American colonies.
- An Asian Comparison: China and the Jesuits= The most obvious difference was the political context. Although the transition between the two dynasties in China namely, The Ming and Qing dynasties, occasioned several decades of conflict. China's political independence or cultural integrity was at no point threatened by the handful of European missionaries and trade workers.
Persistence and Change in Afro-Asian Cultural traditions
- African religious ideas and practices accompanied slaves to the Americas
- Common African forms of religious revelation: divination, dream interpretation, visions and spirit possessions
- Expansion and Renewal in the Islamic World: Continued Islamization was not usually the product of conquering armies and expanding empires. It depended instead on wandering Muslim holy men or Sufis, Islamic Scholars, and itinerant traders, none of whom posed a threat to local rulers.
- China: New Directions in an Old Tradition
- India: Bridging the Hindu/ Muslim divide
A New Way of Thinking: The Birth of Modern Science
- While some Europeans were actively attempting to spread the Christian Faith to distant corners of the world, others were nurturing an understanding of the cosmos at least partially at odds with traditional Christian teaching.
- Why in Europe?: Europe's historical development as a reinvigorated and fragmented civilization arguably gave rise to conditions particularly favorable to the scientific enterprise
This is the end of the blog post for Chapter 15! I find it interesting, how science came to be and I've always wondered why, when tracing back it's roots, leads to Europe. I mean, out of all places? But my questions have now been answered. I hope you learned a lot in this chapter, and I'll see you in the next blog post!
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