The novel explains that after the time of St. Thomas Aquinas, “cracks” began to appear in Christian Europe that for centuries kept the continent unified. During this time the Catholic Church controlled practically all aspects of people’s lives, and faith was used to explain why the world was the way it was.

But as more people increasingly tried to use science to explain the mysteries of the world, conflict between faith and reason increased. This was the beginning of the great trouble in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the time period now known as the Renaissance.

Based on this prompt, and using chapters 16 and 17 along with the Week 5 Power Point slides as reference guides, create a discussion post answering the following questions:

• Question 1: How did the Renaissance change Christian Europe? Give at least three examples.
• Question 2: In what ways did the Renaissance influence the way democracies formed leading to the way free societies exist today in our present? Give at least three examples

Rubric:

For your initial post, write at least 5 sentences (you may write more) for each question (15 Points).

Respond to at least two of your classmates with at least 5 sentences in your response and make at least one reference in your response from either your original post or your classmates’ post (10 Points For Each Classmate Response).