The Nature of Man, the Renaissance, and the Protestant Reformation Essa

Europe was a tumultuous region in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In particular, the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation both introduced organic intellectual and religious ideas that challenged centuries of established doctrine. This period corresponded with a great surge in philosophical, political, and religious writing. Among the most influential thinkers of the time were the Italian humanist Leon Battista Alberti, the Florentine politician Niccol Machiavelli, and the German monk Martin Luther. Alberti wrote in a time of humanist thought and economic prosperity, Machiavelli in a time of growing political unstableness and economic uncertainty in Italy, and Luther in a time dominated by an increasingly corrupt Catholic church. While Albertis good mass is reflected in On the Familys optimism, Machiavellis The Prince and Luthers On Christian Liberty are direct reactions to the perceived crises the authors were witnessing, and both works were written with a n self-evident sense of urgency. These writers all put forward strongly worded and drastically different views of the fundamental nature of man. Alberti saw man as an active being want a classical education and a good family in which to raise children, Machiavelli perceived man as craving power and impossible to satisfy, and for Luther man was eternally sinful searching only for faith in God. More significant than their visions of human nature is the physical focus of that naturebody or headand how the origin of such a attitude was related to the period in which they were living. While Albertis vision of human nature focused on a mans outward actions shaping his inner soul, Luther saw just the opposite, a mans soul struggling to achieve what... ...lberti saw a great potential for man and wanted to outline his vision for others. Machiavelli saw mans flaws and what it caused, and sought only a cold, practical solution without the painfulness of morals. Luther, devastated by the c orruption of the ruling religious authority, wished to save Europes Christians from a way of life that would seal their fate as sinners.Works CitedAlberti. On the Family. Readings in Western Civilization 5 The Renaissance. Ed. Eric Cochrane and Julius Kirshner. The University of lolly Press Chicago, 1986. The Making of the West, Volume B 1320-1830. Ed. Lynn Hunt, et al. Bedford/St. Martins New York, 2001. Luther, Martin. On Christian Liberty. Trans. W. A. Lambert. Fortress Press Minneapolis, 2003. Machiavelli, Niccol. The Prince. Trans. Harvey C. Mansfield. The University of Chicago Press Chicago, 1998.