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Comprehensive essay questions综合论文问题
1. In lecture, medieval culture was associated with three different social contexts (or “sites”): (1) the Church, (2) royal and noble courts, and (3) cities. Which two of these sites of culture is, and how does Dante bridge the gaps between them? 在讲座中，中世纪文化与三种不同的社会背景（或“地点”）相关联：（1）教会，（2）皇家和贵族法院，以及（3）城市。这些文化遗址中有哪两个，以及丹特如何弥合它们之间的差距？
Dante's Inferno associated with royal and noble courts, and cities. Dante thought that those who can enter Inferno are the soul with sins while living and can be forgiven by punishment. Dante described the major seven deadly sins in Inferno, Dante took this to criticize and respond to some of the major problems in social and cultural fields at the time, Dante condemned the church for interference of secular politics, undermining Italian unification, he also critiqued the greed, arrogance and corruption of monk class. Dante described how he washed away the sins in Inferno to reach the ground paradise, with this, Dante emphasized the importance of faith and reason, he affirmed that the God is the supreme master, at the same time, he stressed the importance of human reason and free will, showing the emergence of ideas of humanism. Dante was through criticism of religious culture and inheritance of religious world under the background of royal and noble courts, as well as enlightenment of humanism under the background of cities to bridge the gaps between them.但丁的地狱与王室和贵族宫廷以及城市有关。但丁认为那些可以进入地狱的人是生活中有罪的灵魂，可以通过惩罚得到赦免。但丁描述了Inferno的七大致命罪，Dante当时批评并回应当时社会和文化领域的一些主要问题，Dante谴责教会干涉世俗政治，破坏意大利统一，他还批评了僧侣阶级的贪婪，傲慢和腐败。但丁描述了他如何冲走Inferno的罪孽到达地面天堂，由此，但丁强调了信仰和理性的重要性，他肯定上帝是至高无上的主人，同时，他强调了人类理性的重要性和自由意志，表现出人文主义思想的出现。但丁在皇室和贵族法院的背景下，通过批判宗教文化和宗教世界的继承，以及在城市背景下人文主义的启蒙来弥合它们之间的差距。
2. Consider Dante’s Inferno and Erasmus’s Prais as representative texts from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, respectively. What are the major differences between the authors’ worldviews? How do the differences reflect broader changes that occurred in the Renaissance? Did everyone in sixteenth-century Europe share Erasmus’s worldview? 将Dante的Inferno和Erasmus的Prais分别视为中世纪和文艺复兴时期的代表性文本。作者的世界观有哪些主要区别？这些差异如何反映文艺复兴时期发生的更广泛的变化？十六世纪欧洲的每个人都分享伊拉斯谟的世界观吗？
The main difference between Dante's Inferno and Erasmus's Prais lies in that Dante thought that faith is above reason, he confirmed that God is certainly the highest domination, he identified rational asceticism. Erasmus figured that reason is above faith, Erasmus upheld human free will and free development of personality, thinking that we should respect human instinct activity and oppose to asceticism. Dante's Inferno allowed a large number of Greek classical works and excellent thought to be further spread and developed, and Erasmus's Prais laid the ideological foundation for the later religious reform. In 16th century, not everyone in Europe shared Erasmus’s worldview. For instance, Martin Luther believed that free will itself belongs to the title and proper noun of God, human should not use this sacred title. The Erasmus believed that free will belong to human-specific terms.
3. How does Martin Luther’s view of God’s justice and mercy compare to Dante’s? (Hint: think about divine wrath and grace, and about the relationship between faith, good works, and justification for each of them.) What does the difference imply about the differences between Protestant and Catholic views on justification?
Dante's view shows that people have to be redeemed by virtue of the grace of God and the Son from sin, people must get God's grace and redemption by good works. Martin Luther emphasized justification by faith that as long as people believe in God, God can call them "righteous man", so believers are no longer "sinners." People get God's salvation because of faith rather than the so-called good works and holy work.
Catholic view on justification implies that justification is entirely God's grace, which can not be acquired by faith alone, and it includes the following steps and actions: to be baptized to wash away the original sin from the soul to pour into Christ's justification, those to be baptized must be "cooperated" with Christian love, including redemption for crime after being baptized: confession, contrition, receiving absolution continuing to do good works. Protestant views on justification imply that sinners are salvaged by God-given faith alone and it is totally out of God's grace. Therefore Protestant advocates simplifying ritual and watering down or even abolishing the differences between clergy and laity.
4. Martin Luther’s view of human nature has been characterized as “pessimistic.” Explain this characterization and compare it with Erasmus’s view of human nature, as expressed in The Praise of Folly. Why would justification by faith be attractive to someone who held such a view of human nature?
Martin Luther’s view of human nature says that people's "original sin" makes human nature corrupt, only devout mind enables them to communicate directly with God to get rid of the evil for good, so as to get God's salvation, all outside penance and feats can not help them to achieve this purpose. Erasmus' view expressed in The Praise of Folly believes that human nature is good, pure, but when it is in the evil world, it has been poisoned and contaminated, so it praises the simple folly with "innocent nature". Erasmus strongly recommended human free will and free development of personality, promoting respect of the activities of human instinct. The reason for why justification by faith is attractive to someone who holds such a view of human nature lies in that it help people to get rid of the shackles of the complex system of religion to achieve the equality before the God and the Bible to meet people's demands and wishes for freedom and equality, thereby developing humanism.
5. In ancient Greece, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey were the foundation of literacy and high culture. In medieval Christianity, the Bible served the same purpose. Based on these examples, what is the significance of knowing a culture’s central text for understanding its worldview?
A culture's central text reflects the author's views and perspectives about a variety of specific things in the real world at the time, reflecting the author’s overall view and the fundamental point of view about the nature of the world and the relationship between the objective world and people. A culture's central text also reflects the overall characteristics of the worldview of the prevailing people. Formation and establishment of a new worldview usually takes advantage of the existing ideological material left over previously, thus there is often some kind of historical inheritance relationship between a new worldview and an old worldview. The significance of knowing a culture's central text for understanding its worldview lies in helping readers to understand what the author's worldview is, and the background and reasons of forming the worldview. It also helps readers to according to their own life experiences to feel, select or totally inherit an author’s worldview, or correct the author's worldview to form their own new worldview.
6. Both Erasmus and Martin Luther looked to late antiquity for their hero-saints. Erasmus chose St. Jerome, and Luther chose St. Augustine. From what you know of all four figures, explain why Erasmus and Luther thought their choices made sense.
St. Augustine was a Catholic thinker in the Roman Empire, as well as an important representative of European medieval Christian theology and patristic philosophy. His theory is the source of the salvation and grace ideas of religious reform. Luther chose St. Augustine as his hero-saint, because they both believed that in the salvation of people, it totally depends on God's absolute grace. God has absolute free will, he choose to gift human grace of salvation, and mankind is completely passive in salvation, it is irresistible for them to reject the grace of God. Human salvation is possible to be achieved only through grace. And after obtaining the grace of God, people will have corresponding performance (good works, etc.). Their thought has the ingredients of justification by faith.
St. Jerome was one of the most educated, the most learned Fathers, he was also one of the greatest scholars of the ancient Western Church. Erasmus chose St. Jerome as his hero-saint, as in addition to the translation of the Bible, Jerome also wrote many comments of the Bible. Jerome quoted extensive views of previous Church. His commentary has a high authority. Erasmus was a humanist, his purpose in life was to return to the source of truth, and restored the Bible which had been misinterpreted for centuries to show its original appearance. Jerome’s academic writings laid the foundation and clear direction for Erasmus’ studies. #p#分页标题#e#
7. In her guest lecture on March 25, Professor Anna Taylor discussed a number of aspects of the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages. What were the most important aspects of that transition? How do the events from the third through the sixth centuries AD explain the differences between the world of Sophocles and Cicero and the world of Dante, Erasmus, and Luther?
The most important aspects of that transition included: politically speaking, in antiquity, the Roman Empire achieved the unity of Europe. In the Middle Age, there was no strong regime; from the religious perspective, in the late antiquity age, the importance of Roman religion was replaced by Christianity, Christian theocracy surpassed mundane political power; economically speaking, the city-state economy and slavery economy in antiquity age changed into the feudal manor-style natural economy in the Middle age; culturally speaking, the Christian culture replaced the classical Greek and classical Roman cultures to occupy a major position in medieval culture.
From the 3rd century to the 6th century, a series of events occurred in European history, such as the promulgation of "Edict of Milan", which legalized Christianity; the Roman Emperor Theodosius I declared Christianity as the state religion, which led to the differences between the two worlds in religion and culture. In 476 AD, the Western Roman Empire was ended, the situation of European unification turned off. From 376 AD to 568 AD, great national migration occurred, which induced and destroyed the slavery Roman Empire, leading to the development of the feudal economy.
8. For centuries, European history has been divided into Ancient, Medieval, and Modern periods. Now that you have studied European history from antiquity through 1600, explain this scheme. Why is ancient history divided from medieval history around 500 AD, and medieval history divided from modern history around 1500 AD? Are there any reasons that this division should be revised or discarded?
European history has been divided into Ancient, Medieval, and Modern periods. Ancient period was from 700 BC to 500 AD, until the Western Roman Empire perished. Medieval period was from the 5th century when the Western Roman Empire perished to1453 when the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire: Constantinople was captured by the Muslim Ottoman Turkish. Modern period included three centuries from the Middle Ages to the period of the Industrial Revolution, which covered about 1500 to 1800 years. Ancient period and Medieval period took the 5th century as a watershed, as the collapse of the Western Roman Empire led to the crash of the political system in Western Europe, but a unified structure of Christian rule did establish, Christian theocracy surpassed mundane political power. Medieval and Modern periods took the year of 1500 AD as a watershed, because Renaissance, the geographical discovery, the Reformation occurred around 1500 AD marked that Europe entered the modern period. I believe that this division should be revised, because it is not representative, moreover, changes in each period is a slow, complex, gradual process, there is no exact point in time which can divide a history into different periods. It is not even representative of the history of European legal, historical, or political thought.
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