Course Name: Church History

Instructor: Joan Kimani

The Renaissance

David Simbiri
 From the time of the ancient church all through to the medieval church the church faced

various challenges. In the infant Church the main challenge was persecution from outside the

church. The adolescent church faced heretical teaching by especially those from within the

Church.

The event I will be discussing is the renaissance and its effects on Church History. The

Renaissance is the Epoch of the Church reformation era in the medieval church period.

The Renaissance is dated to have occurred between 13th and 17th Century and occurs

mainly in Europe and the effects are mostly seen in Europe. This event overlaps both medieval

and modern Church history.

During the medieval church period towards end of the Reformation era came the

Renaissance and the Enlightenment period. The Renaissance seems to represent a new and

almost different kind of challenge to the church. The pattern of challenges seems to break during

this period and moves from persecution and heresy to disbelief and trivialization. While the

challenge may have long existed it received new impetus during the Renaissance and the

subsequent Enlightenment period. Unlike the past where Christianity and even other religions

were considered reasonable and the validity of these belief systems were questioned from within

their own creeds. During the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, religion in general, and

Christianity along with it, was completely trivialized and thought of as lacking merit and being

unreasonable.

The spirit of criticism began to grow during this period and nothing was too sacred to be

questioned. The measure of all things was reason and proof through empirical experiments.

Anything that could not be explained through these two methods was considered to be false. The

battle lines were between Faith and Reason, Science and Religion and possibly Philosophy

(logical thinking) and superstition. It was the Priest versus the Scientist!
 The advances in science and the proof that certain beliefs held by the church were

erroneous based on scientific discovery and proof further emboldened the enemies of the church.

An example of this was when Copernicus argued that the earth is not the center of the universe as

previously held by the church. Reason was elevated to being Sovereign. All human problems

were capable of being solved by Humans. There was no need for a Savior. There was no original

sin to plague man. Man had finally come of age and was responsible for himself and his fate.

There was great confidence that human progress would be achieved by science and reason. Men

would now be able solve all human problems. Nothing was beyond the reach of human reason.

Peace and prosperity were expected to be the new norm. Even though history has proven this

wrong with the first and second world wars where the philosophies and moralities espoused by

the renaissance and enlightenment were unable to stop the great human misery these

philosophies persists even today.

Over the years the church offered many arguments showing that human reason without

God could not be trusted for it is God who even gives us the ability to reason. Remove God from

the equation and reason cannot stand. However despite much effort by the Church there is still a

great number of non–believers especially in Europe whose unbelief can be traced back to the

belief that Science and Reason have proved that either there is no God or that there is no need for

God. There are also a great number of people who though religious are not believers. They

continue to go to church and to adhere to Christian moral standards but do not believe in a

personal God who sent his Son to die for us in order to save men from their sins. The great effect

of the renaissance and the enlightenment was the removal of the supernatural from religion.

Today one of the great challenges the church still faces is to restore the supernatural to our belief

systems and to restore God as sovereign over reason!

Interesting Fact.

Since the time I wrote this paper on 17th June 2022, It has slowly dawned on me that while the

renaissance did much to remove the supernatural from organized religion it did not quite succeed

to remove the supernatural from the hearts of men. The renaissance and its belief system strictly

adhered to today seems to remain the world view of but a few scientists and philosophers, but

among the common man there is a great distrust in the fact that reason, science and empirical

experimentation can explain all things. Men grapple with questions such as what happens after

death, what is the connection between the mind, consciousness and the brain and many such

matters on which science strictly speaking has very little to say. This has today led to the

resurgence on many old age religions. This resurgence I attribute to the human search for the

supernatural. Herein lies an opportunity for the Church to introduce God back into the argument.

Men are yearning for something and we have the answer of what they yearn for. The one TRUE

God!