Oh, yeah? Even greater than THIS architectural masturpiece (sp?)?
The magnificent cathedral of Florence, Italy, one of the greatest architectural achievements of all times:
http://www.reformationtours.com/site/490868/uploaded/florence_dome.jpg
More images of Florence, hosted by the great German site of www.photocommunity.com
Oh, yeah? Even greater than THIS architectural masturpiece (sp?)?
In about six hundred years — after we hit rock bottom.
Correction:
“Western Civilization finally survived the Black Death and in the middle of the former century, Europe (where I live) went from the chaos, starvation and scorched earth following WWII to a prosperity never experienced before in the history of the continent (a development much aided by the US - in several ways)”
- Okay, those words probably make some kind of sense, but I forgot to add “IN TEN YEARS!” at the end.
Sorry for this - and sorry for not bothering to spend more time tidying up the article before posting. Lots of mistakes and flaws of all kind (like certain expressions being recycled a little too often - I know).
But, I hope readers agree both the Renaissance and the common future of Western Civilization deserves attention.
I believe about half of us can participate in a new Renaissance, the other half is still trapped in a modernist/deconstructionist despair. Unfortunately, the modernist side still holds control over the culture and the institutions. While there is a new Renaissance going on in painting today, those painters are not well shown, and mostly toil in obscurity. The Renaissance will happen outside of the established venues, until it can’t be ignored anymore.
Do we want a new Renaissance? It was a time of revolutionary change, great conflict and constant warfare. New information technology helped spread revolutionary ideas leading to the destruction of established institutions.
The Reformation and Counter-Reformation, peasant revolts, the Sack of Rome, corruption of the clergy, redrawing political and social boundaries all came out of the Renaissance. Conservatives want to save, restore what is good from the past, not destroy it to create a new world.
Are you saying that the Renaissance was the result of the Black Plague? I have never heard that theory before, and I have no idea what you mean by it.
I am very fond of Florence, but most moderns have little knowledge of the history of Medieval Europe. Here is the way G.K. Chesterton characterezes the Middle Ages of the 12th century:
The great cities have arisen; the burghers are privileged and important; Labor has been organized into free and responsible Trade Unions; the Parliaments are powerful and disputing with the princes; slavery has almost disappeared; the great Universities are open and teaching with the scheme of education that Huxley so much admired; Republics as proud and civic as the Republics of the pagans stand like marble statues along the Mediterranean; and all over the North men have built churches as men may never build them again.He wrote that in 1913 which is a little longer than 20 or 30 years ago. The reappraisal of the Middle Ages actually took place in the 19th century before Chesterton was born.
As Chesterton goes on to point out, "There is scarcely a modern institution under which [we] live, from the college that trains [us] to the Parliament that rules [us], that did not make its main advance in [the Middle Ages]."
Then there are literary historians like C.S. Lewis who see no evidence of a Renaissance in literature, but rather a creative continuity with the past. But then how many moderns have read Chaucer, Spencer, Boiardo, Ariosto, Tasso, and Dante? I would guess very few.
To point out the advances of the Middle Ages is not to denigrate the Renaissance. This simply demonstrates that the Renaissance achievements depended on the achievements of the Middles Ages as much as any recovery of the achievements of ancient Roman or Greece.
I would agree that Brunelleschi made great advances in architecture. But his most famous achievement is the dome of the cathedral in Florence. The church below that dome was built in the Middle Ages. And I think this fact can serve as a proper image of the Renaissance: it built upon the accomplishments of the Middle Ages.
Sadly, there will not be a Renaissance in the West, because the real roots of the Renaissance was built in the middle ages.
It’s not an accident that the Renaissance took place in Christendom, because the search truth requires faith in the unalterable nature of truth, and to create true beauty requires knowledge of the transcendent.
As the West, particularly Europe, has become post-Christian, the rising skepticism on the nature of good, truth, and beauty has left its people lacking in any purpose to their lives except pleasure.
Such a culture may often come up with ingenious means of pleasure and entertainment, but it could hardly ever create anything truly beautiful.
Part of the reason for the renaisance was the rediscover of ancient thought.
There are more scientists alive now than ever.
In the last 100 years technology has exploded (sometimes literally)
We have whole new art media.
We are no longer confined to be born, live and die in a 50 mile area.
we are hadly finished.
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Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. |
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How about Reformation?
Two are in progress. The first is the Fanatic Ilsamic attempt thet has as its goal the rigid enforcement of Koranic thought.
The second reform is the secular liberal enlightenment movement that is already sucessful in much of Europe and well on its way in America.
Neither will be a Rennasiance and both are likely to produce Dark Ages.
All I know I learned from Will Durant and his 11 volumes
With respect to WWII and WWI: IMHO Western Civilization has tried to rip itself apart two times within less than 100 years. What does that say about its future?