The position and influence of religion in western culture

Christianity has influenced western culture in many ways, and it has gradually penetrated into western philosophy, law, education and art (literature, music, architecture, painting and sculpture, etc.). ) and science. In the field of philosophy, Christianity has established the tradition of philosophical speculation in modern western countries. As Engels said, "only one ideology was known in the Middle Ages, namely religion and theology." Christian philosophy is the official ideology of the Roman Catholic Church. It is an idealistic ideology with God as the core and theology as the basis. It experienced three stages: early godfather philosophy, medieval scholasticism and modern neo-Thomas doctrine. In the early Christian philosophy, the ontological proof of God and Trinity proved that the debate about the combination of God's nature and human's nature in Christ and the anthropological study of God's gift and human's sin constituted the whole content of the godfather philosophy. Augustine, the head of Xibe in North Africa, is the most famous representative of early godfather philosophy. As a neo-Platonist, he consciously made reason obey faith, and wrote many epoch-making works, such as Confessions, On the Trinity, City of God and so on, which had a far-reaching influence in the history of western philosophy. During the period of scholasticism, scholasticism applied rationality to revelation, trying to prove that the doctrine of faith came from revelation rather than rationality, but belief and rationality were not mutually exclusive, and Christian doctrine could also be demonstrated and explained through rational reasoning. Thomas? 6? 1 Aquinas founded an encyclopedic theological system for Christianity with innovative spirit and profound knowledge, which is another complete theoretical form after Augustinianism. In order to firmly establish the position and influence of Christian philosophy, and at the same time to adapt to the general requirements of society for rationality at that time, Thomas further flaunted his recognition of objective knowledge and human rationality by using Aristotle's realism. In his philosophical system, belief, rationalism and mysticism reached a high degree of unity, which pushed the medieval scholasticism to the peak. Scholasticism reconciled rationality and Catholicism, and eased the crisis of Catholicism caused by the impact of rational thoughts. But once reason entered the temple of theology, it also planted the seeds for the decline of theology. In the field of law, Rudolf, a famous German jurist? 6? 1 yelin has a famous saying: "Rome conquered the world three times, the first time by force, the second time by religion, and the third time by law." Medieval Europe is an era called "sacred order" by Christian theologians. According to Christian belief, the status and role of the secular state has been belittled, and it is only a social organization responsible for lower-level things next to or below the church. It was not until the late 20th century (165438+) that the revival of Roman law began to stand in Italy. Roman law, which was preserved and matured in the Eastern Roman Empire, spread back to the West. Although the formulation of Roman statute law is based on people's religious beliefs, its effective operation is also based on this. However, compared with the canon law, Roman law has a distinct non-religious nature, which has gradually become a powerful weapon for the royal power to counter religious forces, making Roman law gain the same authority as the Bible and get similar respect as the Bible. The Code of Justinian compiled by Ouna, an expert in Roman law at Bologna Law School, was widely used in various fields in A.D. 1088, so that Saint Billner complained that European courts were surrounded by Justinian laws and could no longer hear God's orders. In this regard, the Holy See urgently needs to demonstrate theoretically that religious power is higher than royal power and the church is higher than the state. Although the revival of Roman law in western Europe is directly related to the church, the church attaches more importance to the church law, stipulating that the church law in law courses should be based on religious conferences and canon laws and orders promulgated by the Holy See. In A.D. 1 140, Gracian, a student studying in Ehrner, compiled all previous Christian conferences and papal decrees into a book, which was later called the Collection of Gracian Acts, thus promoting the study of church law. At that time, "the rulers of the polis, government officials and church administrators all came from the same class, received education in the same university and had the same knowledge background;" Therefore, there is a constant process of mutual criticism, which stimulates the development of an educated public opinion "(Christopher? 6? Dawson: Religion and the Rise of Western Culture, page 2 16). In the study of church law, especially civil law, the principles of legitimacy and legitimate government have been incorporated, and the concept that the country is based on law has been incorporated. Law has also begun to be understood as a procedure that everyone must abide by and override personal wishes. The spirit of modern Roman law has undergone the transformation of the Christian world in Europe, which is the product of further rationalization and secularization of religious beliefs. In the field of education, Christianity also laid the foundation of modern western education. In the early Middle Ages, there were traces of monasteries not only in the spiritual precepts of religious life, but also in the ideological development of Christian culture. They are called the Benedictine era of western culture, because from the rise of new Christian culture in Norfolk Sablja in the 7th century to the revival of urban life and the rise of communes in the12nd century, the continuation of higher-level culture has been kept in the Benedictine monastery, which is a huge source of knowledge and literary creation "(Christopher? 6? 1 Dawson: Religion and the Rise of Western Culture, p. 207). Strictly speaking, both higher education and university system originated from medieval cathedral schools and monastery schools, and their cultural knowledge and various disciplines were also developed on the basis of the "seven arts" of grammar, rhetoric, logic, geometry, mathematics, astronomy and music. /kloc-The birth of city universities in the 20th century has brought profound changes to the academic life and education system in western society. The original universities were not organized according to the will of the monarch, but by people who were interested in learning. Later, the church was in charge of university affairs, issuing charters to established universities such as Italy, France and Britain, and cooperating with nobles who advocated running schools. These universities are mainly specialized. The University of Salerno in Italy is famous for its medicine, and the University of Bologna is famous for compiling the Church Code and Roman Law. The largest university at that time, the University of Paris, was the center of philosophy and theology, and it was an example to be followed by universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Prague and Vienna in the late Middle Ages. Will. 6? 1 duran wrote in his masterpiece "the history of world civilization" that since Aristotle, there is no educational institution whose influence can be compared with that of Paris University. In three centuries, it not only attracted the most students, but also attracted the most agile and outstanding people, such as Abela, John of Salisbury, Albert the Great, Siegel of brabant, Thomas? 6? 1 Aquinas, Bonaventura, Roger? 6? 1 bacon, dance? 6? 1 Scott, William? 6? 1 ockham, etc. , almost constitutes the philosophical history from 1 100 to 1400. These great scholars must have been created by great teachers in an atmosphere that stirred people's hearts and reached the peak of civilization in human history. From the perspective of European history, the emergence and development of various educational systems, institutions and facilities are inseparable from the Christian church. Some systems established by medieval universities, such as stipulating the courses that students must study, using textbooks, and awarding students degrees after graduation, have been passed down in western higher education to this day. In literature, most of the church literature works in the early Middle Ages were hymns and plays describing the life of Christ and saints. 6? 1 Aquinas and others have done this work. As for the heroic epics prevailing in the Middle Ages, the most famous ones are: poema de mio cid in Spain, Song of Roland in France, Song of Nibelungen in Germany, and Igor Expedition in Russia. All of them are deeply influenced by Christianity, and most of them show a heroic spirit of seeking unity and resisting foreign aggression in the form of Christian struggle against paganism. For example, Russia's heroic epic "Igor's Expedition" has a strong sense of patriotism and religion, and the protagonist is fighting for the interests of the Orthodox Church. Marx commented: "The whole poem has the nature of heroism and Christianity, although the factors of polytheism are still very obvious. "In addition, knight literature prevailed in the Middle Ages, and it was the literary expression of the cultural concept, spiritual personality and life ideal of the knight class. This kind of works takes loyalty to the monarch, religious belief and chivalry as the creed, eulogizes the knight's dedication to fighting for honor, faith and love, and implies the tragic theme of how primitive vitality competes with asceticism. Knight lyric poetry, knight story poetry and knight legend are three main types of knight literature. For example, The Story of Alexander uses 12 syllables, also known as "Alexander verse", which is a famous verse in French poetry. With the rise of cities and citizen classes, citizen culture has gradually formed. After entering the 12 century, urban literature, a literary work created by citizens, began to develop and became the fourth literary form after church literature, heroic epic and knight literature in the Middle Ages. Like Cervantes' Don Fighting Windmills? 6? 1 Don Quixote, in the whole 1000 years, westerners have been unable to get rid of the profound contradiction between spirit and body. They are painfully and helplessly struggling with everything around them, including themselves. This contradiction between divinity and secularity is most fully manifested in Dante's Divine Comedy, the last poet in the Middle Ages. It takes the Christian heaven and hell as its theme and is full of theological allusions. It takes Christian theology as the highest guiding ideology, but it is guided by pagan Virgil. It worships the afterlife of Christianity and eulogizes real life in its works. Christian literature, especially the Bible, has a lasting influence on European and American literature. Many great thinkers, writers and artists draw nutrition from the Bible and look for materials. /kloc-Chaucer's masterpiece Canterbury Tales in the 4th century,/kloc-Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice in the 6th century,/kloc-Samson and Paradise Lost by Milton in the 7th century, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and Thomas? 6? 1 Mann's Yue Se and his brothers are all adapted from the Bible. As a result, the Bible has become an inexhaustible source of European and American literature. In music, Christianity should show God's love, which forms an emotional communication between God and human beings, and music is the most appropriate expression of this emotion. Of all religions in the world, only Christianity has the most musical works and the highest and fastest level of musical development. In the late Roman Empire, church music began to form a unique hymn system. In the Middle Ages, Christian drama and religious music were the main parts of European music. At that time, many composers, singers and music theorists emerged in the church. For example, in the 6th century A.D., Pope Gregory I spent more than ten years selecting many typical tunes and formulating many singing rules, forming a Gregorian ode with simple tone and beautiful melody, which has been widely used in mass ceremonies of the Catholic Church. It is a "Gregorian chant", which represents the impersonal spiritual strength of the church and is recognized as a model of classical music in Europe. In the course of its development, Christian music also made use of chivalrous culture at that time, ballads of French bards and lyric poems of German poets to expand the influence of Christianity. At the same time, a multi-voice religious song called "Olganon" was born. By the17th century, the Protestant music of Christianity had created the form of oratorio. Messiah, the masterpiece of modern oratorio master Handel, has become the most influential, widespread and popular oratorio with its large-scale chorus, beautiful recitation and smooth and comfortable aria. /kloc-Bach, the world-famous master of European music in the 0/8th century, created hymns, oratorios, classic songs and passionate songs, which contained passionate emotions and poetic meditation, and made the "Baroque" music style reach its peak. It can be seen that church music not only established the mode, method and style for medieval European music, but also laid a solid foundation for modern European and American secular music, such as symphony and opera.