论文艺复兴与宗教改革的文化意义

Cultural Significance of Renaissance and Reformation

15—16世纪西欧的两场文化变革运动——文艺复兴和宗教改革,其动因都是克服中世纪基督教社会的文化矛盾,即基督教理想与罗马教会现实之间的严重分裂。但是这两场运动的基本宗旨和历史效果却大相径庭。文艺复兴运动试图让基督教的神圣理想屈从于罗马教会和世俗社会的感性现实,呼唤了人性的觉醒和文艺的繁荣,但是并未从根本上改变西欧社会的基本格局;宗教改革运动旨在以基督教的圣洁理想来批判罗马教会的卑污现实,促成了日耳曼民族的崛起和基督教世界的大分裂,为近代西方社会的政治、经济大变革奠定了文化根基。

Renaissance and Reformation, which took place during the sixteenth and seventeenth century in western Europe, were two cultural transformations serving one purpose to overcome the cultural conflict inherent in the medieval Christendom, that is, to bridge the deep gap between Christian ideal and Roman Church practice. However, the basic purpose and historical effect of two movements are quite different. The Renaissance tried to bend the sacred ideal of Christianity to the perceptual reality of Roman Church and secular society, calling for the awakening of humanity and the prosperity of literature and art, but did not fundamentally change the basic pattern of western European society. The religious reform movement aimed to criticize the servile reality of the Roman Church employing the holy ideal of Christianity, promoted the rise of the Germanic nation and the great division of the Christian world, and laid the cultural foundation for the great political and economic changes in modern western society.