the years from 500 to 1500 A.D. are considered as the Middle Ages or the Dark Ages in Christianity. A period examplary for showing us how religion ought NOT to be: leaders who used religious power to gain worldy profits; blind trust in the religious leaders, blind trust in scriptures other than the ‘Holy’ one, wars caused by difference in religion, a total mix-up and abuse of religious and worldy powers.
It wasn’t until 1500 that a new movement was started. Maarten Luther is considered the first one, he claimed that the church ought to be cleaned out from the inside. We should go back to the roots of christianity and start all over again. Go back to the original message.
Surprisingly (or not) Islam is at this moment at the peak of its Middle Ages. All things mentioned above can be seen back in nowadays islam. What will it take for us to get out of these Dark Ages? Is the time ripe to go back to the roots of Islam and start of where we left (around 100 years after the start of Islam)? Any thoughts on what can ensure the ‘re-birth’, the renaissance of Islam?
Martin Luther had nothing to do with a Rennaissance. He was much more like the many prominent scholars in Islam over the past centuries, arguing that Christianity had become polluted with many innovations such as idol worship (Catholic and Orthodox churches have many icons and statues which people pray at - but Protestant Churches, resulted from Luther's efforts, tend to avoid statues and icons).
Luther's mission in life was to clear Christianity of the Christian equivalent of bida'a (innovation).
It had nothing to do with idol worship but more from the perspective of having a middleman the pope being god's personal representative on earth. Many protestant churches have jesus on a cross.
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*Originally posted by NeSCio: *
It wasn't until 1500 that a new movement was started. Martin Luther is considered the first one, he claimed that the church ought to be cleaned out from the inside. We should go back to the roots of christianity and start all over again. Go back to the original message.
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Martin Luther was the first and was closely followed by Henry VIII. I don't know much about Martin Luther, but Henry VIII founded the church of England to get away from the interference from the Vatican. His reasons were more political than religious. As far as the renaissance goes, again people just got fed up with the interference of religion in everything and decided to separate religion from politics. The renaissance was not a move to start from the basics- it was to revolutionize the slow evolution taking place in the religion!!
Your analogy of islam's dark ages is a correct one. But I don't think we are as bad as the christians were (yet). I think it will take a few more decades before we are ready for our renaissance. The way to get out of the dark ages is not to go back 1400 years but is to bring islam forward by 1400 years- similar to what happened with christianity.
In this thread I have posted the condition of Jews/Christians before Prophet Mohammed PBUH was sent, it is strikingly similar to what the condition of Muslim ummah is nowadays.
When Islam was at its height, it thrived in all areas: culture, religion, philosophy, science, etc. Islam at that time was enjoying its Golden Renaissance. Are we in our Dark Ages right now? I don't think it's THAT bad and Islam being portrayed in a negative light isn't completely our fault either. The anti-Islamic media has quite alot to do with shedding negativity on the religion and we must fight that tooth and nail to overcome people's ignorance. Insh'allah we'll persevere.
The dark ages were only in europe. During that time you had flourishing empires in china and SOuth America. With huge culutral, economic and scientific advances.
ppl, please distuinigsh between Mart*in Luther (King) and the german Maarte*n Luther. I know u mean the latter, but it might be mixed up with the former
We ar etalking about the same person NES. AS far as the Rennaisance goes. Most of the art was still commisioned by the church. From Giotto, to Massachio to Leonardo to Michaelangelo
MS: the Renaissance was not only an one facet change. The whole society changed with respect to economy, social values, art, and also religion. The one who started of the religion change was as u also put forward Maarten Luther.
Matty: u hit the nail on the head. But i thought it were the Catholics who use a sculpture on Jesus. Wasn’t that prohibited in the protestant christianity?
Khattana: of course partly it was to revoltionize religion, but as i’ve said ‘going’ back to the period before the Middle Ages was one of the key aspect of the Renaissance, as witnissed by the fact that people got re-interested in the GReek and roman cultures
Changez_Like: :k:
sweetpie: the question is HOW come Muslims lost all their dignity after the first 200 years of prosperity? I’m hopeful we can overcome this all, but a mentality change is needed: we have to ‘go back’ to how it used to be then and work forward from that point onwards
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*Originally posted by Matsui: *
We ar etalking about the same person NES. AS far as the Rennaisance goes. Most of the art was still commisioned by the church. From Giotto, to Massachio to Leonardo to Michaelangelo
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yes it was. But somehow this 'new' art echoes a bit more optimism and renewed interest in life than the gothic art of the period before it. It seems more enthusiastic
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*Originally posted by NeSCio: *
...
sweetpie: the question is HOW come Muslims lost all their dignity after the first 200 years of prosperity? I'm hopeful we can overcome this all, but a mentality change is needed: we have to 'go back' to how it used to be then and work forward from that point onwards
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If you read that part of history, it started with "DIVISION" and as the saying goes "United we stand, divided we fall".... that was the beginning. We should learn from those mistakes, and not keep repeating them (division after division). And if you go back to the thread I pointed out, it shows that pre-Prophet those people were busy in hair-splitting and sectarianism. The day we ALL vow to ignore the "difference" part of our faith and focus on "common" parts, that will be the beginning of new era otherwise it seems like black hole with no ending.