The Paradox Effect Of The Printing Press

David Nacson

213578794

AP/HUMA 1170 Section M

Professor Tanya Taylor

Sunday February 4, 2018

The Paradox Effect of the Printing Press

During the period of the Renaissance or the Early Modern Period which occurred from c. 1300-1650, it was the Age of Invention, the Age of Discovery of Exploration, and the Age of Reform. It was a time where people like Johannes Gutenberg, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and … , who were from different backgrounds and careers, wanted to explore how things work or to find more efficient ways of how things should work. As a result, that leads them to invent, reform, or discover new ideas that has shaped modern society today and has made our lives easier in every way. Each one of them had their own culture,

He wanted to challenge and question the growing demand of selling indulgences, but he initially had no intentions of starting a revolution that would spread all over Europe. However, when Martin Luther was being rejected by the top authority of the Catholic Church, he began to challenge the Catholic teaching and therefore, he published “95 Theses” to refute them. Martin Luther’s “95 Theses” led to the Protestant Reformation because he believed that the Pope had no authority and that spirituality in regards to sinning and grants for salvation needs to be between an individual and God, and the Catholic Church should not be involved. The initial movement within Germany expanded, and other reform compulsions arose independently after Martin Luther. The spread of Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press gave accessibility for rapid dissemination of religious materials in the vernacular. The printing press allowed Martin Luther’s theological ideas to be enhanced, amplified, and extended all over Germany. One of the characteristics of Modernity is liberalism, which the printing press was the underlying cause for it because people were able to express new behavior or their opinions and they were willing to abandon traditional standards. Martin Luther did not necessarily want to change the traditional values, but he

John Calvin read some of the ideas of Martin Luther, and as a result, he was inspired to abandon the Catholic Church and become a reformer as well. John Calvin believed in the concept of predestination, which means that prior to an individual is born, even if an individual was good or bad in life, God has already assigned whether for an individual to go to heaven or hell for their afterlife. John Calvin was a humanist since he “Withdrew from mediaeval theoretical or allegorical explanations of the contradictions between Classical and Christian views” and he portrayed “An emphasis on human potential, linked to respect for the individual mind and ethical exercise of “free-will” (Taylor, Lecture 3, Slide 14). John Calvin used the printing press to his advantage to spread his view of humanism to others, and his ideas ended up spreading all over Europe. People had no idea of how to get to heaven, therefore; they had to believe in this idea even though it was inaccurate. Another characteristic of Modernity is industrialization which John Calvin believed in and the printing press provoked it. John Calvin believed in industrialization because he acknowledged that God created people to work regardless of their position in society, and that work was a form of worship to