Renaissance humanism was a European intellectual movement beginning in Florence in the last decades of the 14th century. Its focus was on human dignity and potential and the place of mankind in nature; it valued the witnesses of reason and the evidence of the senses in reaching the truth over the Christian values of humility, introspection, and passivity, or "meekness" that had dominated European thought in the previous centuries. Beauty was held to represent a deep inner virtue and value, and an essential element in the path towards God. The movement developed from the rediscovery by European scholars of many Latin and Greek texts.
The humanists were in opposition to the philosophers of the day, the "schoolmen" of the Italian universities, or Oxford or Paris, whose methodology was derived from Thomas Aquinas.
Renaissance :: History of Philosophy
Church History :: Christianity

Renaissance Culture) - Renaissance humanists (Christian) and Catholicism. From the Library of Congress, US.
Meta Description: [ Images and descriptions of items relating to humanism from the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana; part of the Library of Congress' “Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library & Renaissance Culture” exhibit ]
Renaissance Humanism - Extensive bibliography compiled by Fr. William Harmless, S.J., Spring Hill College.
Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Renaissance Humanism - Nicola Abbagnano writes about the ideals of the era. From the Dictionary of the History of Ideas.
Humanism - History of Humanism as it evolved during the Renaissance.
The Renaissance: Humanism - Lecture notes and assignments, giving a good overview of this period of history.
| History Questions : Why Is Humanism Important to the Renaissance? | |
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