Cultural Transformations Chapter 15 – Religion and Science, 1450 – 1750

The Globalization of Christianity In 1500, Christianity was mostly limited to Europe. - Divisions: Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. Christianity was on the defensive against Islam: - loss of Holy Land by 1300. - fall of Constantinople in 1453. - Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1529.

Western Christendom Fragmented: The Protestant Reformation Began in 1517 with Martin Luther’s 95 Theses: - salvation through faith alone, not good deeds. - no need for indulgences. - questioned religious hierarchy. The printing press spread Luther’s ideas. Lots of divisions in Protestantism spread therefore, there were several religious wars: - 1562–1598: French Wars of Religion (Catholics vs. Protestant Huguenots). - 1618–1648: the Thirty Years’ War in the Holy Roman Empire (mostly modern-day Germany).

Martin Luther

95 Theses

The Counter-Reformation The Protestant Reformation provoked a Counter or Catholic Reformation: - Council of Trent (1545-1563): reaffirmed doctrines. - stopped indulgences. - ended much corruption. New religious 0rders: - Jesuits spread Christianity, even went to China as missionaries. - Dominicans and Franciscans as well.

Map of Reformation Europe

Christianity Outward Bound Imperialism enabled the globalization of Christianity: - Spain, Portugal, and France. - Portuguese missionaries led in Africa and Asia. - Spanish and French were prominent in the Americas. - Russian Orthodox missionaries worked in Siberia. European success encouraged belief that the old gods had been defeated. Christians didn’t confront a literate world religion - no holy texts => easier to convert. Confucians, Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims offered greater resistance to Christianity.

The Globalization of Christianity

Holy Virgin Cathedral (Russia)

Conversion and Adaptation in Spanish America Population collapse, conquest, and resettlement made conversion possible: - vast majority baptized by 1700. Europeans tried to destroy native religions. Aggressive actions led to resistance. Sometimes had to blend Christianity with old religions: - Christian saints took on functions of pre-colonial gods. - many rituals survived with some Christian influence.

Christ the Redeemer (Brazil)

An Asian Comparison: China and the Jesuits Jesuits needed government permission for operation. They especially targeted the official Chinese elite. Were respectful of Chinese culture, and tried to accommodate it. Not much conversion at all: - Jesuit efforts gained 200,000–300,000 converts in 250 years. Christian doctrine was not appealing to the Chinese.

Afro-Asian Cultural Traditions Religious elements came with slaves to the Americas: - Europeans tried to suppress African “sorcery.” - However elements of voodoo, Santeria; etc. remained.

Expansion and Renewal in the Islamic World Instead of military conquest, Sufis, scholars, and merchants played crucial roles in spreading Islam from Sub-Saharan Africa to Southeast Asia. Flexible and tolerant Sufis frequently blended Islam with local spiritual practices. Merchants provided connections to a wider world of commerce. While Aceh (Sumatra) saw an emphasis on Islamic legal orthodoxy, Java was home to a peasant population with a much looser blending of Islamic practices with local animism. Javanese women also enjoyed much more agency, freedom, and opportunities. Javanese merchants gravitated toward the orthodoxy of their Arab trading partners.

The Expansion of Wahhabi Islam

Expansion and Renewal in the Islamic World (Cont’d) Islamic “renewal” in Arabian Peninsula - Wahhabism: - founder Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792) was a theologian. - ended veneration of Sufi saints. - aimed to restore strict adherence to the Sharia (Islamic law). - women were expected to subject themselves to husbands. - “idols” were destroyed. - tobacco, hashish (cannabis), and musical instruments were banned.

Islamic “Renewal” As a Muslim, you are forbidden to drink alcohol. This is why Muslim women must marry Muslim men in some countries. Stoning. One of the consequences of not adhering to Sharia Law in many Islamic countries.

China: New Directions in an Old Tradition Recall: China still followed Confucianism: -added Buddhist and Daoist ideas (neo-Confucianism). Elite believed in kaozheng - “research based on evidence:” - it emphasized the need for analysis, instead of unsupported speculation. - led to new works in agriculture, medicine; etc. - scientific approach to knowledge. Lively popular culture among the less well-educated: - production of plays, paintings, and literature.

Guru Nanak (1469-1539)

India: Bridging the Hindu/Muslim Divide Bhakti – achieve union with the Divine through songs, prayers, dances, poetry, and rituals: - appealed especially to women. - often set aside caste distinctions. - much common ground with Sufism, helped to blur the line between Islam and Hinduism in India. Sikhism Spread – the blend of Hinduism and Islam: - founder was Guru Nanak; grew in the Punjab region. - evolved into a militant community in response to Hindu and Muslim hostility (later prized by the British Empire as an elite fighting force).

The Birth of Modern Science The Scientific Revolution was based on careful observations, controlled experiments, and formulation of general laws to explain the world. Significance: - challenged the teachings and authority of the Church. - challenged ancient social hierarchies and political systems. - also used to legitimize racial and gender inequality. Inventions included: the microscope and telescope.

New Inventions

Why Europe? Islamic world: most advanced scientifically, 800–1400. China’s technology: unmatched for centuries following 1000 C.E. European Conditions: - legal system allowed autonomy for institutions. - first corporations were Dutch and British East Indian. In the Islamic world science wasn’t in university system. China had civil service exams and classical Confucian texts: - no autonomy for higher learning institutions. - disdain for science and philosophy.

Science as Cultural Revolution Aristotle and Ptolemy: - the earth is stationary, at the center of the universe. - a universe of divine purpose. Nicolaus Copernicus: - wrote On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (1543). - earth and the planets revolved around the sun. - Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei built on his ideas. Sir Isaac Newton: - formulated the calculus; laws of motion and mechanics. - central concept of universal gravitation. - natural laws of the universe.

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

Newton and Gravity

Science as Cultural Revolution (Cont’d) By Newton’s death there was a different view of the physical universe: - functioned according to mathematical principles. - the “machine of the universe” is self-regulating. - knowledge of the universe can be obtained through reason. - the heart as a pump rather than as mysterious center of the body’s passions; etc.

Science and Enlightenment Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, John Locke, and Voltaire: each of these key Enlightenment figures saw the world as understandable and perfectible once humans figured out the rules that governed society, economics, and morality. With education and embracing reason, people could become “enlightened.” Despite various progressive ideas about social equality and a common rejection of aristocratic privilege, men dominated the Enlightenment, and the movement took a dim view of education for women. That said, there were women who played key roles.

Thanks Montesquieu and Rousseau Montesquieu and “separation of powers” Rousseau and his “social contract”

Adam Smith

Science and Enlightenment (Cont’d) Deism, the belief in a god that created the world and then left it up to the world to run its course, was a common spiritual idea of the Enlightenment. Partially in reaction to the Enlightenment, a Protestant religious awakening spread throughout northwest Europe and North America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Romanticism also embodied a reaction to science as being cold and without feeling and deeper spiritual truths.

Looking Ahead: Science in the 19th Century Charles Darwin: a biologist who argued that life was constantly changing, evolving. All forms of life were in constant struggle with each other over resources, and those that lost the struggle could go extinct. Karl Marx, like Darwin, saw human history as a constant struggle between classes. Marx saw his description of the evolution of human society as scientific because he based it upon research and observation. Sigmund Freud: his unsettling work probed the human unconscious and noted that there were primal urges of sexuality and aggression that drove humans.

European Science beyond the West Science became the most widely desired product of European culture: - but early modern Asia was only modestly interested. Mostly interested in astronomy and mathematics. Japan had some European contact via the Dutch. The Ottoman Empire chose not to translate major European scientific works. Islamic educational system was conservative, and made it hard for theoretical science to do well.

Reflections Ideas shape peoples’ mental or cultural worlds and influence behavior: - many early modern ideas are still highly significant. The development of early modern ideas took place in an environment of great cultural borrowing: - borrowing was selective. - borrowing sometimes caused serious conflict. - efforts to stop cultural influence. - efforts to suppress the original culture.