Lecture 5: Faith & Reason

1. Lecture 5: Faith & Reason Christian Humanism and the Protestant Reformation

2. Faith vs Reason Who is the ultimate religious authority? What is the relationship between religious and secular authority? What is the power of man’s conscience?

3. What is Religion? Can conceive of religion as a cultural system: • Expressed by symbols that evoke powerful emotion • Insistence on order of existence and claim to direct knowledge of truth • Community practice and personal faith • Faith – to believe without reason or proof • Religious practice and faith are expected to go hand in hand • Sense of transcendence • Institutional organization

4. The Old Church,A (Very) Brief History • The Old Church = Roman Catholic Church • Beginnings: • Split from Judaism  Jesus Christ as Son of God • The Confession of St. Peter = beginning of papacy • 312 – 385 = standardization and institutionalization under Constantine • Constantine’s victory attributed to Christian God • Council of Nicaea = consubstantiality of Trinity • 11th Century  East-West Schism and Investiture Controversy

5. Temporal Power vs. Spiritual Authority • Investiture Controversy (11th Century) • Papal Schism (1378-1414) • Avignon Papacy (1309-1377) • Two Popes: French and Roman • Council of Constance (1414-1417) settles the issue • Instituted a council of Cardinals that governed the pope • Can a council be in charge of God’s vicar on earth?

6. Renaissance Catholic Church • Sacraments organize the life cycle • Emphasis on symbols and rituals • Services in Latin • Eucharist: cracker and wine ARE the blood and body of Christ • Transubstantiation: Process through which cracker and wine become the blood and body of Christ

7. Catholic Church Hierarchy Pope Cardinals Archbishop Bishops/Abbots Priests and Monks

8. Eschatology Eschatology=branch of theology that considers the future and all future events Positions past, present, and future within a larger scheme that incorporates the Fall of Man through Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory

9. Major Controversies of the Catholic Church 1. Practices • Church excesses • One response = begging orders 2. Government • Temporal vs. spiritual authority 3. Doctrine

10. Christian Humanism • Renaissance Humanism • Revival of classical learning • Educational reform – emphasis on creating the best human being (virtue and civic engagement) • Christian Humanism • Increased faith in the capability of man + firm belief in Christian God. Ex. Pico’s “Oration” • Utilization of classical learning to enrich biblical understanding

11. DesideriusErasmus “the Prince of the Humanists” 1460s? – born in Holland 1492 – becomes Augustinian monk 1495 – studies at University of Paris 1499 – visits England 1512 – begins work to produce new Greek and Latin versions of the bible 1515 – “The Sileni of Alcibiades”

12. The Sileni of Alcibiades • Plato’s Symposium – the greatest and highest form of love is not love of the material but of the abstract and ideal • Alcibiades – most handsome man in Greece; in love with Socrates, the ugliest man • Socrates = silenus (a box which is carved with ugly face of Silenus on the outside but holds a beautiful object within) • “But if you open up this Silenus, who is outwardly so ridiculous, you find wihtinsomoene who is closer to beign a god than man…” (170)

13. Lessons of the Silenus • Reality vs Appearance (171) • Superficial vs Essential (174) • Christ as ultimate silenus (171) vs majority who are Sileni turned inside out (173) • “upside-down values” (178) and instability of language • Who constitutes the Church? (179) • Material vs Spiritual (185) • Secular vs Religious (188) • “How can he lead us towards the kingdom of heaven… when he is entirely preoccupied with the kingdom of this world?” (187-188)

14. Martin Luther Nov 10, 1483 – born in Holy Roman Empire 1505 – decided to take Augustinian orders 1508 – begins teaching @ Wittenberg 1516 – Tetzel arrives in Germany 1518 – the 95 Theses are circulated 1521 – Luther excommunicated, declared an outlaw of the Holy Roman Empire 1522 – produces German translation of Bible using Erasmus’s Latin version 1523 – Luther marries ex-nun Katharina von Bora 1528 – begins actively organizing the new church

15. The 95 Theses • Indulgences: • Technically – the full or partial remission of temporal punishment after a sinner has confessed and received absolution • Tetzel - "As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs” • Theses 13, 20-22 = limits of pope’s power • Theses 61-66 = Luther’s own ideas of the silenus • Theses 82, 86, 90 = papal hypocrisy

16. Appeal to German Nobility • Reformation of Catholic Church is only possible through secular intervention • 3 walls keep church corrupt: • 1. spiritual is superior to secular • 2. only church can interpret scripture • 3. only pope can call a council • Purposely referencing walls of Jericho

17. Destroying the 3 Walls • Wall 1: Spiritual vs Secular • All Christians are equally Christian; all Christians are priests (408) • Necessary balance of power (410) • Wall 2: Power of interpretation • No scriptural proof • St Peter = power to forgive sin not to decide doctrine • Equality of Christians • Wall 3: Power to call councils • No scriptural proof • Constantine, not a pope, called the most important council • Respect for authority cannot lead to destruction (416)

18. Erasmus vs Luther • Erasmus & Luther: • Corruption of religious authority because of overly secular concerns • Erasmus: • Ultimate belief in Church as institution capable of self-reform • Primarily values peace and resolution of conflict • Insistence on free will  the justice of God • Luther: • Cynical of man’s ability for self-reform • Primarily values adherence and subordination to the divine • Insistence on bondage of the will  the omnipotence of God

19. Free Will?

20. Bondage of the Will • Our will is not even free – we can never freely choose to be perfectly good so as to deserve heaven(79: 187) • Only God’s will is free – could freely choose to do evil or good but because he’s God, he always does good (80: 180) • Scripture is revealed to us but NOT God’s will • Scripture makes it clear that God’s will is ultimate but it does not explain the logic of God’s will (81: 191) • As humans, we can therefore never fully understand the ultimate wisdom of God’s will. Ex. Pharaoh (83) • Predestination is better cause on the merit of our own free wills, we would never get to heaven (85: 199)

21. Five Basic Ideas of the Reformation Sola Scriptura—sole authority of Scripture Sola fide—the doctrine of salvation by “faith alone” Priesthood of all believers Reform of practice—more sermon, less ritual Rulers use their powers to promote the true Christian confession (the Reformed or Old Church)

22. Counter-Reformation • Papal Bull of 1514 • Strengthens bishops’ authority • Limits unauthorized preaching • Council of Trent (1537-1563) • Institutionalizes practices from above • Establishes schools for priests • Inquisition • First developed against Muslims in 1490s • Expulsion of all Jews and Muslims from Spain • Confessionalization: reassertion of commitment to religious principles and doctrines • Criminalization of Protestant dissenters • Jesuit missions • Crack-down on absentee bishops • Reinstitution of vows from abbots to bishops and bishops to pope

23. Consequences of Reformation • From unity to multiplicity • Alliances based on religion • Spain and Italy • England and Germany/Holland • Catholic church revamped itself • Nation-state becomes primary form of community identity • Ex: Kingdom of God versus nations of men

24. Montaigne’s Essays • “To the Reader” – p4 • “On educating children” – p37-73 • “That it is madness to judge” – p74-78 • “On the cannibals” – p79-92 • “On coaches” – p330-350 • “On the lame” – p351-363 • For Montaigne,what is the whole purpose of education, and what knowledge is truly worth pursuing? How should we even pursue knowledge? • What knowledge does the new world have to offer the old? And why is it significant?