Deck 16: B: Cultural Transformations Religion and Science 1450-1750

Question 1

What major movements in early modern India brought some Hindus and Muslims together in new forms of religious expression,and how do those movements differ from each other?

Answer 1

•The bhakti movement was a devotional form of Hinduism that disregarded the detailed rituals of the Brahmin priests in favor of direct contact with the divine.This emphasis had much in common with the mystical Sufi form of Islam and helped blur the distinction between these two traditions in India.
•The Sikh movement also blended Islam and Hinduism.Its founder,Guru Nanak,had been involved in the bhakti movement but came to believe that there was no Hindu or Muslim,only God.Sikhism won converts from both Muslim and Hindu communities.

Question 2

In what ways did the Protestant Reformation in Western Europe challenge the authority of the pope?

Answer 2

•Rejection of the idea that religious authority emanated from the pope and the ecclesiastical hierarchy;rather,the source of religious authority was the Bible,as interpreted by individual Christians.
•Rejection of the pope as the ultimate authority in faith and doctrine.
A really good answer might also note the indirect challenges to papal authority in the removal of church sacraments as channels of God's grace and also the rejection of the role of clergy as mediators between God and humankind.

Question 3

How did science in the nineteenth century both reflect the influence of the Enlightenment and undermine its basic assumptions?

Answer 3

•Like Enlightenment thinkers,scientists like Charles Darwin and Karl Marx believed in progress and formulated general laws to explain events in a rational way.Darwin introduced laws of natural selection,and Marx identified laws of historical development.
•Unlike Enlightenment thinkers,nineteenth-century scientists emphasized conflict and struggle rather than reason and education.
•Sigmund Freud applied scientific methods to study the human mind and emotions;his conclusions challenged the view of the individual as a rational,thoughtful,and independent being.

Question 4

How did the strategy of Christian missionaries in China differ from their strategy in Spanish America?

Question 5

Why did Catholic missionaries have their greatest success in Spanish America and in the Philippines?

Question 6

What made the Scientific Revolution revolutionary?

Question 7

How did the Catholic Church respond to the Protestant challenge in the Counter-Reformation?

Question 8

Which groups of people were drawn to Protestantism and why?

Question 9

How did the traditional belief systems of Christian converts influence their interpretation and practice of Christianity?