Unit information: Renaissance World in 2012/13

Unit name	Renaissance World
Unit code	THRS30151
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Balserak
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Religion and Theology
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

The renaissance is, in the eyes of many, one of the biggest influences on modern Western life and thought to which one can point. This unit will examine it, covering the period from (ca. 1304 to 1550), and both southern and northern expressions of the renaissance. It will look at the writings of figures like Pico della Mirandola, Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, Niccolo Machiavelli, Michel de Montaigne, and will examine a host of topics, including: mysticism, education, Hermeticism and Cabala, heresy and schism, scientific discovery, Renaissance concepts of humanity (what it means to be a human being), ways of approaching God, humanism and scholasticism, and logic and rhetoric. Our aim throughout will be to examine the thoughts of an earlier era, and to aim to “hear with ears not our own sounds too soft for our own ears to hear.”

Aims:

• To provide an understanding of the historical, social, political and intellectual landscape out of which the Renaissance sprung.

• To provide an understanding of the Renaissance in its varied expressions, with an emphasis on philosophical, religious, ecclesiological, scientific, philological (including text-critical) and broader intellectual expressions.

• To analyse the movement of the Renaissance from the South (Italy) to the North.

• To dig deeper in order to penetrate some of the fundamental reasons why the Renaissance occurred and what its elemental driving ideas were.

• To understand of some of the scholarly perspectives taken on the Renaissance, with particular emphasis upon the reassessment provided by Paul Kristeller and his disciples.

• To develop analytical skills through the discussion and essay writing.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By the end of the unit students will be expected to have:

acquired knowledge and skill to discuss historical, social, political and intellectual landscape out of which the Renaissance sprung

acquired knowledge and skill to discuss the Renaissance in its varied expressions and to relate these expressions one to another through an understanding of the deeper reasons why the Renaissance occurred.

acquired knowledge and skill to discuss intelligently the scholarly positions taken on the Renaissance from Burckhardt to Kristeller.

acquired knowledge and skill to discuss the influence left by the Renaissance, and to consider how that influence is seen in modern Western life and thought

and additionally for level 3 to:

• incorporate a strong grasp of the Renaissance context into ones analysis of it, (including and particularly and understanding of the relationship between humanism and scholasticism)

• be able to describe, evaluate and/or challenge current scholarly thinking on the Renaissance

• demonstrate a clear and penetrating understanding of the deeper ideas which seem to have given rise to the Renaissance, including an understanding of the variation which can be seen between these deeper ideas in individual thinkers

• display a high level of ability in selecting, applying, interpreting and organizing information.

Teaching Information

Weekly: one hour lecture plus a one hour seminar in which primary readings are discussed.

Assessment Information

One summative coursework essay of 3000 words (50%) and one exam of 2 hours (50%).

Reading and References

Erika Rummel, The humanist-scholastic debate in the Renaissance & Reformation (Cambridge, Mass ; London: Harvard University Press, 1995)

Paul Kristeller, Renaissance thought and its sources (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979)

Charles Nauert, Humanism and the culture of Renaissance Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006)

William Bouwsma, The waning of the Renaissance, 1550-1640 (New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, 2000)

Jacob Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (Harmondsworth:

  Penguin, 1990)