Chapter 16

Since I'm catching up on my blog entries, I'll write my reaction to the whole Chapter of our assigned readings.
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Egypt was the first country converted to Christianity. Because of the entire region becoming Islamic, Egypt did eventually also. Therefore by the 1500, Christianity was mostly in Europe and fighting Islamic forces. The Protestant reformation began in 1517 with Martin Luther's 95 Theses. He also questioned the clergy's authority. I find it funny that I'm writing this entry late because I'm rereading about the Catholic authority and the pope made his last public appearance as pope yesterday! I believe the Catholic clergy is somewhat still corrupt (as all large institutions can be), but a lot less corrupt than in the days of Martin Luther. Because of Luther's ideas, the large religious schism touched upon other things that weren't religious like social, economical, and political tensions. Being Catholic seems to have been the lives of these people.

It's interesting how the book points out that Protestantism "ended veneration of Mary and other female saints" so that Jesus could be the one and dominant male figure. There is so much evidence about religion that men have used to their own advantage to gain more power. I continually learn more and more! Not only did Christians do it, Muslims too! In both cases, women were more equal to men in the beginning of the religions but as time passed and the religion became more powerful, women had less power.

Because religion had so much precedence in European lives, it makes sense that the schism caused many more revolutions and wars like the French Wars of Religion and the Thirty Years' War. The Reformation helped to encourage citizens to think past religion and more with a secular point of view.

The conversion of Spanish America resinates still today since most of Mexico to South America are largely Catholic. Religion has really stuck with colonized lands. Although Christianity reached China, the religion didn't stick as well because it wasn't combined with Chinese culture well and Europeans didn't imperialize China until later.

Wahhabism is a strange word to translate over to English. I want Dr. Ferdowsi to say the founder's name, "Abd al-Wahhab" so I know what it's supposed to sound like. Wahhabism's main goals were "to restore absolute monotheism, end veneration of saints", "to restore absolute monotheism, end veneration of saints", and "to restore strict adherence to the sharia (Islamic law)."

Confucian ideology still resinates in Chinese culture today even though the Qing dynasty ended 101 years ago. I see the difference between Confucian ideology and American ideology because American ideology is very individualistic, whereas Confucian isn't. Confucius was a traditionalist and he saw the family unit as the unit to honor the most. I believe it's wonderful to value family, but at the same time, each person is an individual. I like to see the middle ground to combine both ideologies.

"The Scientific Revolution was an intellectual and cultural transformation that occurred between the mid-sixteenth century and the early eighteenth century."
I think the term "Scientific Revolution" is synonymous with "modernization". Science has helped people understand concepts with hard evidence; it's a way of thinking we still have today. It challenged religious institutions, social/political systems, and inequality among people.