Course Description:
What is a Renaissance man, and where did that term come from? What did Machiavelli really say? Why was Pope Julius II excluded from heaven? What was Martin Luther thinking when he pounded a nail into a church door in Wittenberg? In this course we will try to answer these questions, and others. This course examines two important phenomena in the history of Western civilization: the Renaissance and the Reformation. The Renaissance was a time of creativity, genius, and rediscovery of classical wisdom, and it gave us not only the great art of Michelangelo, da Vinci, and Raphael, but also the infamous political advice of Machiavelli and the rousing verse of Petrarch. Once the Renaissance reached its apex Western civilization, and especially religious life, fell into the confusion and wars of the Protestant Reformation. Reformers such as Luther and Calvin took on the Catholic Church in a search for the authentic Christian religion. Their reforms left a lasting and profound impression on the subsequent development of Western civilization. We will explore the foundations, the history, and the lasting impact on Western civilization of the Renaissance and the Reformation. In completing this course students will become more familiar with the development of the distinctive features of the history, institutions, economy, society, culture, etc., of these pivotal periods in Western civilization.
Prerequisites: A previous course in World History is recommended.
This course fully meets the General Education requirement in Humanities or Western Civilization.
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