Religion In The Middle Ages

The Christian Church was absolutely instrumental in the art of the Renaissance. It was the driving force behind every inspiration; without the Church, there would have been no art. The Church was the only institution powerful enough to be able to support the commissions of all of the artwork, and it was the only institution, in which people had enough faith and devotion to spend so much of their time and money creating pieces that—although beautiful—were not necessities. The role of religion in art actually began during the Byzantine era. During this time, all artwork was religious in nature, and most of it was done in a consistently similar style so that figures from the Bible could be easily recognized by everyone and so that people

Art with biblical themes were popular in the Middle Ages because the artists were also focused on theology. Jesus and Mary were usually the main focus in most paintings. The people in the Middle Ages really appreciated godly looks and tried to incorporate the catholic religion in most if not all of their paintings (class notes). For example, Giotto’s painting Madonna and child displays Mary and Jesus in the center of the painting. Not only are Mary and Jesus in the center, they are also illustrated to be a lot bigger than the angels around them. Giotto wasn’t the only artist to place Mary and Jesus in the center and larger, this was very normal for the Middle Ages. Most artists were very influenced by the church because the church had the highest role in government.

In several ways, Christians and Muslims in the Middle Ages shared in their approach to dealing with the infidels living in their lands, particularly in their proclamation of legal edicts defining the level of toleration and the protection offered those nonbelievers. Yet, however similar the two society's legislative relations were in managing minority faiths, there still existed minor fundamental differences stemming from disparities in their societal structure.

Religion had an enormous impact on almost all aspects of life in the medieval world. In the Christian belief, the first two people that were created by God were Adam and Eve. They were provided with a paradise to live in,the garden of Eden, and were only given one rule that they had to follow to not eat from the tree of good and evil. If they did eat fruit from the tree, then they would have to leave the paradise. Eve was tempted by Satan, and ate the fruit. She then gave some of that fruit to Adam, and they were banned from the garden. For this reason, women were seen as dangerous temptresses. This story showed that women were morally weaker, and were likely to lead their spouses into sin. They became known as the “weaker” sex, for it was a woman who first consumed the fruit in the Garden of Eden.

If the plague were to happen today in the United states, it would impact us like how it impacted the middle ages, by religion. First our religion would survive, and like medieval time we would believe we were punished by god. We would all stay in our own religions and trust that our god would keep us safe. This is what many believed in the middle ages. We would haft to get back to work and maybe even work harder to keep everything in progress. We would continue to build lives and make new families. We would use a lot of ideas the europeans used during their plague.

Religious freedom was very important in the Middle Ages and still is currently. Our societies are built on freedom. In the Middle Ages religious freedom was not accepted like it is today and many wars and conflicts in history occurred because of diversity and different views on religion. Religion has a huge impact on society, and most of it is negative impact. Freedom of religion, or religious freedom, is the right to choose a religion, or no religion, without the inference of the government.

There was one main religion in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. This religion was Roman Catholic Christianity. It was both unifying and separating in some ways. Unlike now, religion served various functions, and was the main cultural aspect in people's lives. The Christian patriarch was more powerful than European kings, and wealthier.

The base of civilization is religion; without it, no civilization could advance as much unless they had something to believe in and strive for. From 1000-1500 B.C., civilizations were flowering. They had strong religions, a flourishing economy, a variety of government forms, and a variety of social systems. Civilizations such as the Islamic Empire and the Medieval Empire were becoming stronger and fought against each other in the Crusades. While that was happening, the Vikings were raiding the medieval empire in hopes of becoming alike their war-like gods. Religion was a positive force in developing civilizations because it created stronger governments, closer communities, and new advancements that assisted economically.

During times of chaos and unrest, people need rules, guidelines and a sense of belonging to provide order and stability. Throughout the Middle Ages, there were many wars and conflict happening. People were lost, lacked leadership and were in dire need of some commonality to unite and bring them together. Religion took power when the government didn't in Europe. According to the 9th grade curriculum, religion, as seen through the monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, has unified society by providing stability and order.

The Middle Ages is the time between the fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of the Renaissance. As the government of Rome disappeared with the fall of the Roman Empire, people were living dangerous, hopeless lives. Religion became an important influence in the Middle Ages not just in Rome, but for other countries in Medieval Europe who sought comfort in this religion. One of the most influential and rising religion during the Middle Ages was Christianity. The Rise and Spread of Christianity in the Middle Ages can be characterized by the fall of the Roman Empire, efforts by Pope Gregory the Great, and activities of the church.

There is irrefutable evidence that over the period of the Middle Ages, both Christianity and Islam have been anchors in both shaping and influencing governance of kingdoms and empires comprising Western Europe, the Byzantine Empire, and territories ruled by Islam. Religion during this period was widely used to set laws, influence culture, justify armed conflicts, and pronounce punishment on citizens domiciled within the geographies depicted within this essay. I will attempt to illuminate the geopolitical climate, territorial demarcation, and religious influences that depicted life circa 500 – 1517 CE. From the background material submitted, I will directly answer the following questions:

Religion in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance When the Renaissance, the “rebirth” of sciences and arts, began, and the Middle Ages ended, many things changed. As the world of science and art grew more and more advanced, new discoveries were made and the secular world became more prominent, one thing that was greatly affected was religion. In both time periods, everyone was still Christian, the content of the Bible is the same, and there were prominent religious leaders. In the middle ages, the main focus in life was to get into heaven, so the church was very important, but in the Renaissance, peoples views on the world changed as they started to learn more about it. In particular, some things that were affected were the types of Christianity, the literacy, and the perspectives of the people.

In the Medieval time, art was also very controlled by religion. Most art was based off of religious figures and were colored mostly dull dark colors. In the Renaissance, while art still contained some religious themes, more and more artists explored things like nature and the human body, they also began to use brighter colors.

Religion experienced a lot of progress and transformation throughout the Middle Ages. Christianity held consistent popularity and other religions such as Islam were on the rise in participation. After the fall of Rome, there was no unified state or government in Europe and the Catholic Church used that opportunity to become a large powerhouse. The Roman Empire had effectively split into three different worlds: Muslim, Byzantine, and western European. Various Kings, Queens, and other leaders looked to the Catholic church for power and protection in exchange for alliances. Meanwhile, the Islamic religion was growing in wealth, power, and people. With the prophet Muhammad’s death in 632, Muslim groups took under large parts of land and united them under a single caliph. The Byzantines were still operating from Constantinople, just under a smaller rule and rural life assumed greater importance in the backbone of their society. Religion was largely involved in the Middle Ages’ art and architecture. Massive Cathedrals were built and even books were a work of art before the invention of the printing press. In addition, their economy was directly affected by religious activity such as missions and conquests. Overall, the general trends marking the progress religion in the Middle Ages are inclusion of everyone, a building of a community, and the opportunity of becoming equals with other practitioners.

The best label to describe the Middle Ages is the Age of Faith . This is because the church tried to make the world more peaceful, men gave up their possessions for god, and people gave a lot of money in order to build huge churches. The church tried to bring peace to the people. The only reason they thought they could do this was because they knew they had power. The church knew that people were so devoted to the church that they would do anything that the people of the church say. According to document 5, “ This decree of peace shall be observed… so that no one may commit murder, arson, no one may injure another with a sword, club, or any kind of weapon.” Men were willing to give up everything for their religion. The men in monasteries weren’t