Renaissance and Reformation Europe

Description

This course examines two of the most important formative periods in European history: the artistic and intellectual changes that began in fifteenth-century Italy that are traditionally known as the ‘Renaissance’ and the radical and often violent religious reform movements that swept across Europe in the sixteenth century, normally referred to as the ‘Reformation’.

The political, religious, intellectual and cultural changes that occurred in this period contributed many of the characteristic features of European civilization still visible in the modern world. The ‘fall-out’ from both the Renaissance and the Reformation has shaped the political and cultural life of Aotearoa New Zealand as much as it has done those of the United States and western Europe.

The main focus of this course will be on exploring the intellectual, cultural and religious changes of this period, while paying careful attention to the social and political context in which they occurred. It will seek to explain what the Renaissance was and why it was significant. It will examine why the Reformation took place, what issues were at stake, and how questions of faith shaped society and politics.