Assignments for this course take the form of written summaries, research, and analysis. They are designed to help us work through the course objectives, while keeping a focus on our spiritual growth through conceptual learning.

For each assignment, please develop a document and submit it to me in either Microsoft Word or HTML format (your word processing software should permit you to do a "save as" and choose either of those formats).

Each assignment can be completed by consulting Web-based materials listed on the course Resource page.

Assignment 1  Assignment 2  Assignment 3  Assignment 4

Assignment 5 Assignment 6

Reading Assignment 3

Renaissance Period

Read the articles in the following links and other online resources relevant to the Renaissance Period in order to prepare yourself for your writing assignment.

http://library.thinkquest.org/15413/history/history-ren.htm

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=11498109

Writing Assignment  3A

Renaissance Period

Write an essay from your own perspective on the Renaissance Period. What have you learned. What can man-kind learn form the past both good and bad experiences from the past. This assignment will as will the others be 10-15 pages single spaced in MLA or APA style.

Writing Assignment  3B

Answer any 10 of the following questions:

1. When did the idea of a "Renaissance period" originate? In what ways does the long-popular concept of a "Renaissance period" need to be modified? To what aspects of the two centuries considered in this chapter can the term "Renaissance" be most usefully applied?
2. How did Renaissance knowledge and interpretation of ancient classical literature differ from that exhibited by medieval scholars?
3. Explain the meanings of humanism--in both specific and general senses--as applied to the Renaissance.
4. Why did the Renaissance begin in Italy?
5. How do you explain the growing aversion to medieval Scholasticism? Was it based purely on intellectual considerations?
6. What were the objectives of the civic humanists?
7. In spite of the differences between the two groups, what did the Neoplatonists have in common with the "civic humanists"?
8. What was Machiavelli's contribution to political philosophy?
9. What technical improvements between 1300 and 1500 made possible the full flowering of Italian painting?
10. What was Leonardo da Vinci's conception of painting? What relationship did he see between art and science?
11. "If Leonardo was a naturalist, Michelangelo was an idealist." Show how this is exemplified in the works of these two supreme artists.
12. In what directions did Michelangelo deviate from naturalism during his career?
13. What developments help explain the decline of the Italian Renaissance?
14. Point out the chief differences between the Renaissance in Italy and that in northern and western Europe. How do you explain these differences?
15. Erasmus is generally regarded as "the prince of the Christian humanists." Show how his writings entitle him to such a distinction.
16. What did Erasmus mean by the "philosophy of Christ"?
17. Compare "Christian humanism" with other varieties of humanism. Why did Christian humanism fade after the early sixteenth century?
18. How does Thomas More's Utopia illustrate the ideals of humanism?
19. How are the manifestations of the Renaissance in Germany illustrated by the Letters of Obscure Men?
20. Compare the effects of the Counter-Reformation and of the rise of Protestantism on Renaissance culture.
21. How do the writings of Rabelais contrast with those of Erasmus as examples of Renaissance humanism?
22. How were developments in music related to other aspects of the Renaissance?
23. Why was Renaissance humanism less of a stimulus to scientific progress than was the mystical philosophy of Neoplatonism?
24. What factors besides Neoplatonism aided in the development of science?
25. What is meant by a "mechanistic" interpretation of the universe?
26. Trace the steps in the achievement of the "Copernican Revolution."

Format:
Your paper should be 10-15 pages in length and your strategy documentation should be developed in good report form, using either MLA or APA style for all external resources.