Humanism Influence in the Renaissance

Humanism Influence in the Renaissance

The Renaissance worldview can be characterized by a growing humanistic orientation. While we can trace the Renaissance to Italy, its ideas spread throughout Europe and is most recognized as an artistic movement. Montaigne, Michelangelo, and Leonardo di Vinci are just a few names that come to mind when we think of the Renaissance. The Renaissance, however, is more than art - it is an entire movement that was heavily influenced by humanism. In fact, humanism is the driving force behind much Renaissance thinking and, as a result, is extremely significant. Humanism, the movement, opened the eyes of mankind to look upon himself for answers and inspiration.

The term "humanism" is forever associated with the Renaissance and can be broadly defined as a renewed interest in humanity. A closer look at humanism reveals that this renewed interest included the arts and the mind. Individuals were open to exploration - particularly inward exploration of the mind. People also began to question longstanding perspectives, especially traditional points-of-view. For humanists, knowledge meant more than philosophy. It included an individual's creative and aesthetic powers along with their ability to reason. Most humanists believed that the "educated person would be a morally good person, and that only such education as made a person more upright was worthy of the name" (Cameron 72). In addition, "humanists had an almost infinite faith in the liberalizing and improving power of classical education" (72). It is also important to note that the word "humanity" was "interpreted as meaning a combination of instruction and generosity of spirit" (72). Humanism also consisted of a "peculiar combination of intellectual and literary disciplines combined with artistic, physical, and musical training which used to be called 'liberal'" and "owes its origins to the Renaissance" (72). Tzvetan Todorov explains that the term humanist refers to doctrines in which "man is the point of departure and the point of reference for human actions" (Todorov 6). He explains that the term was probably first used by Montaigne, who wanted his own writings to be defined as something altogether different from the writings of theologians. His desire was to create a separate place for the discussion of humanists, which included human "activities or fantasies of purely human writings, those concerning subjects that are 'matters of opinion, not matters of faith'" (6). Humanism was a movement of the mind but by definition, it was also a movement of man himself looking inward to become more knowledgeable.

To understand the significance of humanism during the Renaissance, we must look back at what existed before humanism and the Renaissance. One cannot look at humanism and the Renaissance without looking at how each influenced religious thought. In fact, the most significant difference between the Renaissance and the Middle Ages is "where God had previously been the centre, Man now takes this place" (Dresden 13). Man in now the focal point of the world and he is the "centre of all that is taking place" (12). The most "corrosive impact" (Cameron 73) that the Renaissance had on medieval Christianity came from the thinker who was as "devoutly, intelligently, and consciously committed to Christian faith as could be" (73). Erasmus took the humanists' textual criticism, moral values, and belief in education and applied them uncompromisingly to theology" (73). Another significant difference between the two movements is that the humanists "showed a fresh and, one might say, unprejudiced interest in ancient texts and that they had an almost insatiable curiosity about unknown interests" (19). Humanism is important to the Renaissance because it allowed man to look at himself for answers instead of looking to outside influences. In short, mankind suddenly had enough faith in himself to trust his own instincts and inclinations to be worthy of consideration.

Looking inward produced many writers and philosophers that expressed personal opinions about humanism or the nature of the human and humanity's role not just on earth but in the universe. Sem Dresden notes that it is generally accepted that humanism was the movement that "brought modern Europe into being" (Dresden 8). We can see how this is true with the works of Michelangelo and di Vinci. They were men that explored the inner man to create, design, and explore the world.