Theme Purpose

Purpose: To recognize and evaluate the influence of classical ideals on emerging modern western culture.
Essential Question: Were the ideals embraced by an enlightened European society the result of innovation in a new age or simply imitation of classical thought? (Innovation or Imitation?

Standard: Evaluate the impact of major belief systems on societies and nations. (CSS 1.3)

Theme Objectives

Renaissance: Explain how the political, cultural, and intellectual ideas of the Renaissance revived the classics and laid the foundation for the modern state.

Reformation: Identify and evaluate the factors which called into question the traditional scope and power of the Catholic Church

Christian Humanism and the Power of the Individual

Focus: Christian Humanism

Focus Questions:

What is the nature of Utopian society? Is it an ideal society? If so, is it a society made up of ideal people? Compare the "absurdities" in Utopia with Erasmus's Christian folly. How are the similar/different?

What do the documents reveal about the political, religious and intellectual climate of the 16th century? Are the ideals expressed the result of innovation in a new age or simply imitation of classical thought?


Support Documents:

Christian humanism: The writings of Erasmus and Thomas More's Utopia
Summary of Utopia
Summary and Comparison w/Plato's Republic