How Did Christianity Influence the Expansion and Development of Europe Between the 1400s-1800s?

How Did Christianity Influence the Expansion and development of Europe between the 1400s-1800s?

Christianity was always put on a silver platter when it came to how Europeans lived. Everything decided, said, and written, was based on Christianity and what they believed the Catholic Church wanted. However, when Christianity became challenged, things took a drastic turn. Europe was quickly advancing due to how they were beginning to challenge Christianity and their faith in the Church. The Reformation is what began this challenge in religion, and the Scientific Revolution started to show advancements after these questions against Christianity arose. The Enlightenment is what tied it all together and showed that this threat in Christianity only brought advancement and a brighter future.

People have criticized the Church for centuries, but the 1500s was when the Reformation of the Church was really taking a toll. The Reformation was a time where the Church’s teachings were beginning to be questioned. Critics of the Church claimed that its leader were corrupt. The popes were seen spending extravagantly on personal pleasures, becoming patrons of the arts, and fighting wars. They were also having children and they were becoming so secular, they did not have time for their spiritual duties. Indulgences were also being sold. An indulgence was a pardon from sin, like a way to buy yourself in heaven. Indulgences caught the eye of a specific person that would soon lead the Reformation. In 1517, Martin Luther publicly took stand against the selling of indulgences. Luther wrote 95 Theses criticizing the “pardon-merchants” and posted them on the doors of the castle church in Wittenburg and debated with other scholars. Because of the invention of the printing press, Luther’s 95 Theses were printed and seen all over Germany, thus the beginning of the Reformation. Church officials were threatened by Luther, this made them very nervous. In 1520, Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther. Different forms of christianity were beginning to rise, such as Protestantism and Calvinism. The pope’s authority was being judged and Europe continued to advance by finding different forms of Christianity.

The Scientific Revolution was a time in Europe that permanently changed how people viewed the physical world. Theories, such as the heliocentric theory challenged the church. The church believed that the Earth was the center of