Answering the questions - Essay Example

Western Civilization 5/12 Ans2. Christian Humanism & Secular Humanism While both of them educate about sound moral values, the problem lies solely in the word “secular” as suggested by (McQuilkin 78), as secularism places ‘man’ to be the foremost authority in the world.Yet Christian authors such as (Brown 233-234) (Hauerwas and Wells 4-13) clearly state that morals without god cannot sustain overtime as one ‘will’ ultimately use immoral ways to suit his needs without any sort of fear of punishment.

Brown used an anecdote of a disease stricken tree, within which the exterior branches and leaves are still intact even though the tree is dead from the inside and it will only be a matter of time before the leaves fall out and reveal the real nature of the tree (Brown 234).While Christian doctrine offers pardon from sins through the acceptance of Jesus Christ as our savior, secular humanists believe that humans are basically noble and have no need to ask for forgiveness from anyone for their “sins”.

Thus secular humanists cannot discard their guilt and once a human compiles too much guilt, then overtime he becomes accustomed to these feelings of guilt and the signals from the conscience and has no trouble behaving sinfully and immorally (Brown 233-238). Almost all the aspects of the Christian doctrine comply with humanist world views, the doctrine teaches about respect for fellow human beings, sanctity through the unity of a man & woman, staying truthful, and not doing anything that is sinful in nature according to the Bible.

More and Erasmus were some of the greatest preachers of Christian Humanism and were considered exceedingly moral and intelligent. Being close friends, More and Erasmus had high respect for one another, Erasmus even talked about More’s sole being “purer than snow”. While their outlook and views about Christian humanism were analogous, their methods were different in the sense that More was much more radical than Erasmus. (Hauerwas and Wells 142)As previously suggested by Brown and Wells, Christian humanism is indeed a workable doctrine now and will be in the future. Ans3. ProtestantismThe Pope was and is a prominent figure all over the world, and believed to be the foremost religious authority and the most righteous man.

So when Martin Luther advertised several gross allegations against the Pope and the Church’s officials in his 95 Theses; this immediately gained popularity, as do many scandals in the present day. (Graham 118-119)In less than 2 weeks, the popularity 95 theses had covered all of Germany and within 60 days the publicity reached all over Europe; mostly through word-of-mouth publicity and the scandalous nature of the texts. (Graham 119)The main reason why people believed those allegations was because to some extent these were reported true; the most infamous of them being the “sales” of indulgences known to be conducted by certain officials of the church.

Luther also claimed that 50% of the “donations” received through such sales, went to Rome (the Pope’s home) for the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica. (Findling 161)Being a fierce negotiator Luther convinced his subordinates about the “greed” and “corruption” within the church, while remaining true to the fact that the Bible is the only source of truth, which at the time did not pose any conflicts with the outlook of the people and hence he swiftly gained popularity and many converted to Protestantism.

(Findling 147) (Graham 121)Ans6. Charles VBeing a ruler-by-birth, Charles V, received the best care and possessions; far greater than even some other sovereigns of that time. He enjoyed most of his life procuring whatever he wanted, and attaining success after success (Burkhead 68-79). In the later years, he caught 2 major diseases, gout and his hereditary larger lower jaw; these defects became too painful and paralytic for him to bear overtime. These defects caused tremendous stress in his life and he became more conscious of these after his futile attempts at the heretics (Lutherans); which he believed was because of his sicknesses.

(Burkhead 76)Since Charles V had never seen defeat and constant defeats against the heretics got him to lose his morale and in the later years of his life he talked more about his religion, i.e., he was trying to connect with God to gain inner peace. This was possibly the reason as to why he retired to a monastic life.His new life at the monastery made him feel closer to God, and hence he was able to leave the riches of his kingdom behind. Still, he had a separate palace within the monastery and it included some of his luxuries along with a few servants.

Works CitedBrown, Robert McAfee. The Bible Speaks to You. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1985.Burkhead, Alice. Heroes of Modern Europe. Forgotten Books, N.D.Findling, John E. Events That Changed the World Through the Sixteenth Century. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001.Graham, John. Shapers of Our Age. London: CreateSpace, 2009.Hauerwas, Stanley and Samuel Wells. The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2011.McQuilkin, Robertson. Understanding and Applying the Bible Revised and Expanded.

Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2009.