What impact did the Renaissance have on Christianity?

Answer

The Renaissance was a period of renewed interest in the study of the Humanities, commencing in Italy and spreading across Europe from the 14th to the 16th centuries. It brought about a revival of art, literature, and learning, marking the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era. The broad impact of the Renaissance influenced Christianity and played a role in altering the course of church history.

One significant way in which the Renaissance affected Christianity was by fostering curiosity about early church writings in Greek. During the medieval era, the focus was on Scholasticism, where students delved into commentaries on the Scriptures. The primary textbook used was Peter Lombard’s Sentences (12th century), which provided commentary on selected Scripture passages organized thematically. Lombard compiled insights from the church fathers and contemporary thinkers. Another widely used resource was Duns Scotus’s commentary on Peter Lombard’s Sentences. Theological students in the Middle Ages dedicated more time to studying commentaries and interpretations of commentaries than to the Scriptures themselves!

The Renaissance promoted a return to the original sources. Many Greek classics reached western Europe as the grand Greek libraries of the eastern Roman Empire were relocated westward to safeguard them from advancing Muslim forces. Scholars began to express interest in reading these classics in their original languages. Similarly, those interested in studying the Scriptures recognized the importance of examining them in the original Greek and Hebrew, rather than Latin. (During that period, the Latin Vulgate, a 4th-century translation, served as the official Bible of the Catholic Church.)

To facilitate this shift towards original sources, Erasmus of Rotterdam published a Greek New Testament in 1516, utilizing the Greek manuscripts available to him. Despite Erasmus’s efforts, the publication of the Greek New Testament was met with opposition from traditionalists.S’s text was far from perfect, it was a significant improvement over the Latin and was a key to the rise of Christian humanism in the Renaissance. As the Bible was studied in the original languages, errors in the Latin translation were exposed. For example, Martin Luther discovered that where the Greek has “repent,” the Latin Vulgate had “do penance” — two very different things.

It is impossible to separate the Renaissance and the Reformation. Emerging Renaissance thinking helped bring about the Reformation, which in turn contributed to the full Renaissance. Figures like Luther began to study the Bible independently rather than depend on the church’s authority to interpret it. As they delved into the Scriptures, they encountered teachings that diverged significantly from official church doctrine. These individuals also felt compelled to provide accurate translations of the Bible in the common language of the people, and, thanks to the recent invention of the Gutenberg printing press, they had the means to spread the truth. Luther published a German New Testament in 1522, based on the second edition of Erasmus’s Greek text. Meanwhile, William Tyndale was working on an English translation; Pierre Robert Olivétan was crafting a French translation; Jacob van Liesveldtin was translating into Dutch; Laurentius and Olavus Petri were collaborating on a Swedish Bible; Christiern Pedersen was creating a Danish Bible; Oddur Gotskálksson was laboring over an Icelandic translation; and Casiodoro de Reina was producing a Bible in Castilian Spanish. The common people, who could not read the Scriptures in the original Greek and Hebrew (or in Latin), could now possess a Bible in their own language, leading to a surge in literacy rates as individuals sought to read the Bible themselves.

The natural progression of Reformation thought, which helped drive the spread of the Renaissance, was to challenge the church’s authority and eliminate social distinctions among people. If any individual could approach God without a priest, if all

All believers are priests, and if salvation is through faith in Christ without the mediation of the church, then the authority of the medieval church was severely weakened. Likewise, thoughts of equality in Christ and in society came to the fore. Kings who had always assumed that they reigned by divine right were now called upon to justify their actions by Scripture; thus their autocratic freedom was curtailed. In the same way, secular rulers felt they could break with church authority in favor of their own consciences and understanding of Scripture. In the Reformation, the seeds of the “separation of church and state” were sown.

Renaissance means “rebirth,” and that is certainly what happened to society and culture as art and science came to full flower. Within the time of the Renaissance occurred a “rebirth” of the church as well, as men began thinking biblically and independently from Roman Catholicism. Unfortunately, Renaissance thinking kept going where the Reformation stopped. The Reformation said that one could question the church where it disagreed with Scripture. The secular thinkers of the Renaissance said that Scripture, too, could be questioned where it disagreed with one’s understanding. For the secular Renaissance thinkers, man was the final authority and arbiter of truth—not God, not Scripture.

Evangelical Christians today are the heirs of the Reformation, which might be called the Christian Renaissance, and modern secular society is the heir of the secular Renaissance.