Brittany Grove – Countering Culture – Lesson 4

1. entertainment, educates
2. a. Non-naturalism – only the non-natural realm exists and the physical world is an illusion b.
Biblical – supernatural and natural realms exist c. Naturalism – only the natural world exists
3. natural causes, supernatural
4. First Cause, also known as the Cosmological Argument, is the argument that the universe exists
and therefore had a cause, and that the cause was God.
5. ….philosophical study of the universe, especially its origin and nature.
6. Knowledge, epistemology
7. the mind-body problem
8. Man is not immortal; his mind is strictly material and dies with the rest of his body.
9. Jesus does not believe in monism, Matthew 10:28
10. a non-theistic religion
Brittany Grove – How Should We Then Live – Chapter 4

The Reformation struggled with the same main questions and ideas as the Renaissance, but the

two produced wholly different results. While the men of the Renaissance believed that they could

acquire answers to everything in their own power, the men of the Reformation understood the

importance of the Bible and its teachings, realizing that they couldn't rely solely on human reasoning to

answer all the great questions. The teaching that the will of man was marred after the fall but the mind

of man was still purely intact, which Thomas Acqinas spread during the Renaissance, led men to view

themselves and their own intelligence as the ultimate authority. However, in the Reformation, John

Wycliffe of England and John Huss of Bohemia both worked to emphasize the authority of the Bible

and believed so strongly in its sanctity that they were willing to sacrifice their lives for their belief.

Both men of the Renaissance and men of the Reformation challenged and renovated the ideas and

customs that had been previously accepted without question, but while the men of the Renaissance

reverted to humanity as the source for all explanations, the men of the Reformation returned to the

Bible as the sole source of instruction, seeking the original form of Christianity and the church. Their

placement of the Bible as the supreme authority removed the church from dual authority with the

scriptures and placed it under the authority of the Bible, removing some of the humanistic ideas that the

work of Renaissance artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, and Dante reveal had crept into the church.

The men of the Renaissance also struggled with finding meaning and trying to build universals from

particulars, a result of their central focus on mankind. The men of the Reformation, however, focused

on God as the center of all things and never had to struggle with finding meaning, for the Bible

supplied the answer before the question even arose. Their trust in the Bible's truth allowed them to find

meaning in the world and also allowed science and art to flourish, as well as providing a basis of truth

from which to understand mankind. The Renaissance had added humanistic thought to the concept of

salvation, teaching that works were required and not faith alone, but the Reformation returned to the

teaching of salvation through God's grace alone, epitomized by the removing of the rood screens from
many churches. Some accuse the Reformation of being antagonistic to the arts, and indeed some works

were destroyed in efforts to get rid of worship, but the people of the Reformation did distinguish

between cult images and other works of art and produced many fine pieces of art and music. Both men

of the Renaissance and men of the Reformation created beautiful works of art. Yet, the humanism that

the men of the Renaissance relied on provided them with no universals, meaning, or absolute morals

while the Bible provided the men of the Reformation with a steady basis of truth and meaning and gave

them reasons to pursue art and science.