Modern Culture, Strayer 15

1/8/2017

Taylor Scott

1/9/2017 10:27:41 am

MQ4: Why were missionary efforts to spread Christianity so much less successful in China than Spanish America?

-China's political independence or cultural integrity was not threatened by Europeans
-Europeans needed permission of Chinese authorities (not by force)
-Jesuits targets were Chinese elites (not the entire population)
-efforts to accommodate Chinese culture
-missionaries offered little that the Chinese really needed

Sofia Puccio

1/9/2017 04:37:26 pm

I also added these things:
-Christianity required a complete abandonment of traditions
-The Pope outraged the emperor Kangxi, causing missionaries to be expelled
-A distrust of Europeans, due to: their willingness to work with the Manchurians, an enemy of China, miracle workers, Christian sacraments being seen as cannibalistic, and the Christian's secret meetings, which they connected to the European's presence in the Indian Ocean.

The last one is kind of long and detailed...I'm not sure exactly how much of that is necessary :)

Taylor Scott

1/9/2017 09:57:58 pm

I agree that all of those are factors; however, two factors are somewhat similar in both China and Spanish America- Christianity required complete abandonment of traditions and a distrust of Europeans. Because of these similarities, I feel that the distinction in the spread of Christianity between the two societies lies in the power of the Chinese to grant permission, to expel, and to be accommodated that was not exhibited by the Native Americans.

What do you think?

Taylor Scott

1/9/2017 11:06:32 am

MQ5: What accounts for the continued spread of Islam in the early modern era and for the emergence of reform or renewal movements within the Islamic world?

-wanderings of Muslim holy men or Sufis, Islamic scholars, and itinerant traders
-Muslims assimilated into places that they moved and settled in
-orthodox Muslims were offended by religious speculation

Matilda and Ava

1/10/2017 07:31:06 pm

Hey Taylor! We got a couple more things, feel free to edit.

-Conversion to Islam generally did not mean sudden abandonment of old religious practices (much simpler for people to convert)
-Having connection to the wider prosperous world of Islam was beneficial
-Slave trade contributed to spread of Islam from Africa to the America’s
-religious syncretism became offensive, this plays important role in religious renewal/reform
-led some Muslim scholars and religious leaders to examine the ways that the general practice of islam had come to deviate from Quran- return to purer ways (renewal)

Bingham

1/9/2017 11:53:54 am

What was revolutionary about the Scientific Revolution?

The Scientific Revolution was revolutionary because it put an end to the idea that the earth was stationary and at the center of the universe, which had been the dominant view of the world in Western Europe (the Ptolmaic view).

It was also revolutionary because the laws formulated by Isaac Newton showed that the universe was not propelled by angels and spirits but functioned on its own according to timeless principles that could be described mathematically. A corollary of this view was the idea that knowledge of the universe could be obtained through human reason alone, without the aid of ancient authorities or divine revelation.

Above all, it was revolutionary because it challenged educated people to question traditional views of the world and humankind’s place in it. (A lesson we still seem to need to learn!)

Sofia Puccio

1/9/2017 04:41:45 pm

MQ7: Why did the Scientific Revolution occur in Europe rather than in China or the Islamic world?
-Europe’s legal system included the concept of a corporation
-universities became “neutral zones of intellectual autonomy”
-study of natural order gained a distinction from philosophy/theology in Europe
-natural sciences were viewed with suspicion in the Islamic world
-Chinese focused on civil service exam
-as Europeans became aware of new lands and cultures, it opened their minds to new perceptions of the world
-drew on knowledge from Islamic world and that of ancient Greeks
-values of the Reformation, such as challenging authority, literacy, and affirming secular professions emerged

Taylor Scott

1/9/2017 10:18:46 pm

Don't forget that the competition between states often stimulates advancement in Europe!

Amy Vaughan

1/9/2017 08:57:45 pm

I'm still a little confused as to what the difference is between the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment Movement. Would anyone care to clarify for me? Thanks :)

Taylor Scott

1/9/2017 10:12:44 pm

The Enlightenment Movement came out of the Scientific Revolution. Whereas the Scientific Revolution was concerned with obtaining knowledge about the laws of the earth (usually in mathematical terms from careful observations and controlled experiments), the Enlightenment Movement was particularly focused on government and how to govern humans effectively. However, these are similar in that they contradict traditional values and they cause scholars to ask questions. Did that help?

Amy

1/10/2017 09:36:52 pm

Yes, definitely! Thank you :)

Taylor Scott

1/9/2017 10:25:44 pm

MQ1: In what ways did the Protestant Reformation transform European society, culture, and politics?

-kings and princes who disputed with the political authority of the church found own independence and opportunity to gain lands and taxes held by the Church
-middle-class urban dwellers found religious legitimacy for their jobs in society
-common people could express opposition to social order
-convents were closed and Protestant churches were as willing as Catholic churches to officially give women official roles in the church
-reading the Bible gave literacy and education to women (as only wives and mothers who needed male supervision)
-continuous Catholic-Protestant struggle (ex. Edict of Nantes as a result of prosecution of Huguenots and the Thirty Years' War)

Audrey Deigaard

1/10/2017 03:24:20 pm

I also included that the Protestant Revolution encouraged a skeptical attitude towards authority and tradition, which then became a way of thinking independently against organized religion that eventually made way for the Scientific Revolution.

Ava Kirchen

1/10/2017 06:06:48 pm

I'm not sure if I'm on the right track or not but do you think it would be correct to say that the Protestant reformation led to Catholic counter-reformation leading to unique doctrines being reaffirmed and clarified?

Bingham

1/11/2017 06:53:47 am

Yes, absolutely. And the formation of the highly educated Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

Audrey Deigaard

1/10/2017 03:00:19 pm

mq737 - What kinds of cultural changes occured in China and India during the early modern era?

China:
1. Neon-Confucianism was supported by Ming rulers in their aversion to Mongols and by Manchu or Qing rulers in order to impress Chinese intellectuals to support their new dynasty
2. Wang Yangming argued that a virtuous life could be achieved by anyone through introspection and contemplation -> promoted individualism and potentially undermined the Ming Dynasty
3. some Chinese Buddhists attempted to make Buddhism more accessible by suggesting that laypeople perform the monks' rituals at home and that withdrawal from the world isn't necessary to achieve enlightenment
4. kaozheng criticized unsupported speculation of Confucianism and generated works dealing with agriculture, medicine, pharmacology, botany, craft techniques, etc.
5. during the Qing Dynasty, kaozheng was associated with the recovery and critical analysis of foreign documents -> criticism of Neo-Confucian orthodoxy
6. pop culture emerged among less-educated urban-dwellers

India:
1. bhakti movement provided outlet for social criticisms
2. growth of Sikhism as a distinct religion in the region of Punjab

please comment with anything I missed!

Audrey Deigaard

1/10/2017 04:33:41 pm

summing up so far: In what ways did religious changes in Asia and the Middle East parallel those in Europe, and in what ways were they different?

1. all 3 experienced religious reforms; Neo-Confucianism in China, Catholic reforms in Europe, Wahhabi movement in Arabia, and bhakti in India
2. new religions were created in Europe and Asia; Sikhism in India and Protestantism in Europe
3. Wahhabi movement, Neo-Confucianism, and Protestantism all increased restrictions on womem, while Sikhism and bhaki lessened them

I probably missed a lot, so please add any that I didn't list!

Taylor Scott

1/10/2017 08:47:04 pm

I don't know if classifying Protestantism as a new religion works as well as classifying it as a reform based off of expressing opposition to the Catholic Church. I also don't think that Protestantism increased restrictions on women. Although there were no convents or official roles for women in the Protestant Church, literacy and education was encouraged- granted the Bible painted women as wives and mothers that needed male supervision. I would say that the restrictions among women were about the same among Catholicism and Protestantism. What do you think?

Amy and Eliza

1/10/2017 07:59:41 pm

So Eliza and I were talking about the spread/lack there of of Christianity in China, and realized that Christianity's popularity among the Chinese elite is unusual for such an evangelical religion. Our only other example of such an occurrence lies in the topic of Islam in West Africa, where the general public continued practicing their traditional religions, while the urban elite converted to Islam. Do you think there is a similarity between the two missionary approaches that led to this phenomenon?

Bingham

1/11/2017 06:34:30 am

Good stuff! Personally, I don't think these parallel phenomena were a result of the evangelizing process, and more a result of the extant social classes. Islam in W. Africa was simply a consequence of trade, unlike Christianity in China. The comparison, I believe lies in the relative spiritual needs of the elites in both places. Chinese elites had rejected Buddhism for the most part, and Confucianism alone leaves much to be desired with regard to spiritualism. Chinese lower classes benefited from a blend of Buddhism/Confucianism.
In W. Africa, it was the elites more than the lower classes exposed to Islam because trade was the social engine, and well regarded, and elites participated. The lower classes on the other hand had less exposure, and were content with the ancient animist traditions extant in W. Africa.

We can see a similar trend in the recent history of the West. Upper class, more educated, people are increasingly secular, while religion tends to remain the enclave of the lower and working classes.

Taylor Scott

1/10/2017 08:50:26 pm

MQ2: How was European imperial expansion related to the spread of Christianity?

-expansion was seen as continuation of long crusading tradition
-religion drove and justified European ventures

Are these points too general?

Amy Vaughan

1/10/2017 09:40:50 pm

I would say another is merchants/settlers brought their religion to new lands and tried to emulate it there. Additionally, missionaries (esp. Catholics) spread Christianity to peoples outside of Europe, and had the most success in placed that were politically dominated by Europeans (relating it back to the question), like the American colonies and the Philippines.

Taylor Scott

1/10/2017 08:59:11 pm

MQ3: In what ways was European Christianity assimilated into the Native American cultures of Spanish America?

-Native Americans generally agreed along with notions of Spanish (ex. political and military success was seen as a display of the power of the Christian God)
-majority of Native Americans were baptized by 1700 (Spanish were Catholic and had duty to mission as much as possible- converting the masses)
-women who previously had religious roles lost them to an all-male clergy
-Europeans claimed an exclusive religion and launched movements of extirpation to undermine native religions
-resistance erupted with a religious revatalist movement, the Taki Onqoy(dancing sickness), predicting the defeat of the Chrisitian God by the Andean deities
-Christianity was eventually blended with a Native American framework yielding Andean Christianity and Mexican Christianity

Amy Vaughan

1/10/2017 09:46:33 pm

I think I would focus more on the blending (i.e. assimilation) aspects rather than all reactions to Christianity in Spanish America. I think your last bullet point really encompasses the idea of it, but I don't know if that's the whole answer on the test, or if we have to include more, like examples :/

Taylor Scott

1/11/2017 09:31:00 am

I interpreted assimilation to be more along the lines of the process of the absorption and integration of the place of Christianity in Spanish America. What do you think?

Cassie Barham

1/11/2017 03:13:42 pm

I see where you are coming from, Taylor, and I don't necessarily disagree with you. I do think Amy also has a point, though. I think what you have are the more evidentiary details and are missing the bigger categories of what those fall under. I hope that makes sense. Here's what I have for this one:

--It was a pretty common goal of the native populations to reinterpret traditions and practices of Christianity to fit within a more familiar framework by incorporating local traditions, such as when Taki Onqoy dancers would use the names of Christian saints, or those who complied with the Christian faith might make a cloth covering for the Virgin Mary and a shirt for an image of a native huaca with the same material.

--The foreign Christian tradition was often absorbed into local cultural patterns in Mexico: churches were built in close proximity to the sites of old temples; cofradias put together community processions and festivals and prepared proper funerals and burials for their members; Christian saints closely paralleled the functions of precolonial gods; etc. In addition, Christians in Mexico often practiced local rituals without thinking that this might be incompatible with Christian traditions.

Taylor Scott

1/10/2017 09:07:59 pm

MQ9: In what ways was the Enlightenment challenge older patterns of European thinking?

-created belief systems such as Deism, Pantheism, and natural religion
-belief in progress
-belief in power of knowledge to transform human society
-satirical, critical style, a commitment to open-mindedness and inquiry, and a hostility to established political and religious authority
-took aim at aristocratic privileges and "divine right of kings"

Amy Vaughan

1/10/2017 09:52:24 pm

I broke this one up into three categories, if anyone else's mind works that way too:

Challenged: aristocratic privileges, established religion, the divine right of kings, and the fixed nature of human society

Promoted: human reason, skepticism of authority, natural laws, potential for progress, education

Results: revolutionary movements

Taylor Scott

1/10/2017 09:12:14 pm

MQ10: How did nineteenth century developments in the sciences challenge the faith of the Enlightenment?

-conflict and struggle became motors of progress
-individuals were now enmeshed in vast systems of biological, economic, and social conflict

Taylor Scott

1/10/2017 09:34:45 pm

MQ11: In what ways was European science received in the major civilizations of Asia in the early modern era?

-interest was modern and selective
-telescope did not become discovery machine in Asia
-Qing dynasty emperors and scholars were most interested in European techniques, derived largely from Jesuits missionaries, for predicting eclipses, reforming the calendar, and making accurate maps of the empire
-European medicine was of little importance in China until the nineteenth century
-European mathematics was of particular interest to kaozheng researchers who were exploring the history of Chinese mathematics
-after Japan lifted the ban on importing European goods, Japanese scholars studied European texts in medicine, astronomy, geography, mathematics, etc.
-European science assumed a prominence in Japanese culture in the mid-nineteenth century
-Ottoman intellectual elites saw no need for a wholesale embrace of all things European

Cassie Barham

1/11/2017 02:57:46 pm

BPQ: In what ways was the missionary message of Christianity shaped the cultures of Asian and American peoples?

Asia (mostly China:)
--Missionaries in China sought to present Christianity by emphasizing its parallels with Confucianism as the Chinese were largely prosperous, making forced conversion an ineffective method.
--Because of this, missionaries took great pains to be respectful of Chinese culture and not as forthcoming with their mission to convert others.
--The target of Christian missionaries in China was primarily the elite. Some elite found Christianity favorable due to its moral certainty and the aspects of science of the west. The prospect of miracles also attracted a small following of Chinese commoners.
--Christianity in China was not completely accepted as it became more obvious that devotion to the religion would entail the abandonment of some Chinese traditions.

Americas (mostly Spanish America):
--The political advantage that the Europeans had of the Native Americans led to a less accommodating approach to conversion. They used their successful conquest to legitimize the superiority of their god and sought to convert the entire population.
--The Europeans were not completely successful with this mission, as they were faced with some resistance. There was some explicit protest and there were also efforts to create blended versions of Christianity so as to accommodate the native traditions.

Bingham

Welcome class of 2019. Some years students collaborate in this space effectively, some years not so much. One thing I know, collaboration significantly enhances learning. If you want access to my thoughts, this is the collaboration space to use. Most people propose an answer to margin questions, big picture question, or anything else related to managing Strayer. Other people can then comment leading to a stronger answer. I'll keep an eye on these pages, and pop in when I think you need me.

Modern Culture, Strayer 15

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