Two Styles of Humanism

Two Styles of Humanism

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After the death of Lorenzo de’ Medici, new learning became growing up, and some people attempt to reform the religious life of the area. With the usage of humanist learning, two writers who were considered as the most important writers of the period gave new ideas to the Christian living. They are Niccolò Machiavelli and Desiderius Erasmus. Their work gave the new conception in humanity and the political ruler.Machiavelli was trained as a humanist and active as a diplomat in Florence.

“The Prince”, which is the famous work of Machiavelli, offered a monarchical ruler advice designed to keep that ruler in power. According to Lawrence Cunningham and John Reich in Cultures and Value: a Survey of the Humanities, the basic theme of The Prince is the pragmatic use of power for state management. “For Machiavelli it was power, not the moral law of God, that provided the state with its ultimate sanction” (302). Machiavelli supposes that “Christianity’s role in politics is a disaster that destroys the power of the state to govern” (302). For that reason, Machiavelli asserts that the state needs to limit the power of the church, and allow it to exercise its office only in the spiritual realm.In addition, Erasmus also gave his opinion for the Christian lifestyle.

He “attempts to combine Classical learning and a simple interiorized approach to Christian living” (302-303). In his idea, we can see that he still want to keep the belief of Christian besides learning the new things. By this way, people can learn the good things from the Bible, and they can practice to improve their life.In fact, these two writers made a big change of thinking and conception of humanism.

And this is the first movement of the Christian in the Renaissance. From this, there would be something new in art work later on. 

Work Cited:

Lawrence S. Cunningham and John J. Reich. Cultures and Values: A Survey of  the Humanities, 6th Edition.

Thomson Learning, 2006. 

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