Read and interpret Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, demonstrating comprehension on a Reading Check assignment (CLO2).

Read and interpret Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, demonstrating comprehension on a Reading Check assignment (CLO2).
Reflect on how Renaissance portrayals of heroism contribute to a Biblical-Christian understanding of humanness (CLO3).
Reflect on how Renaissance portrayals of sin contribute to a Biblical-Christian understanding of humanness (CLO3).

The Renaissance World was often clustered in cultural “centers” throughout Europe, like Venice, Rome, Paris, London. People of the Renaissance often understood themselves through the lens of their cultural center rather than as lieges of a king or members of “Christendom,” the way they would have in previous periods.
There were a number of changes in Europe that moved the culture into the period we now call the Renaissance. One was the Protestant Reformation, the challenge to the universal authority of the Catholic Church. Another was the development of modern nations as we understand them today. Instead of loose territories ruled by nobles, the border lines of our modern countries were established and modern systems of government began to be institutionalized.
In terms of art and learning, a cliché about the Renaissance is that it was a return to the ancient classics after the “dark” period of the Middle Ages. This is an inaccurate generalizations about the Medieval World, but the Renaissance certainly valued the Greek and Roman classics in terms of art, poetry, philosophy, and politics.
The Renaissance was also a time of discovery—both in geography (traveling to the New World) and in intellectual learning. For instance, it is in the Renaissance that Copernicus proved that the son was the center of the universe, overturning centuries of previous belief.
The dominant worldview in the Renaissance was humanism. The period saw a renewed valuing of the human person and expanded potential for human life in this world—not necessarily in a theological context but just because humanness is something to value.
Image: cutaway from Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, 151

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