Ms. Niewiadomski Global 3

How did the Protestant Reformation expand Europe’s

scientific development and political freedom?

Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew; if the transmission should be interrupted for one century, civilization would die, and we should be savages again.

-- Will and Ariel Durant

Introduction

Societies that are open to examining ideas and finding ways to incorporate rules or principles of truth are the ones that make the most technological advances. By breaking the power the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church held over every aspect of life in Europe, the Protestant Reformation was a revolution in individual responsibility and thinking. This focus on the responsibility of the individual to analyze a text or evidence (in Luther’s case, the Bible) for himself (rather than have it interpreted to him by the Roman Catholic Church) enabled the freedom of thinking and evidence-based mindset that led to the Scientific Revolution. More political freedom also resulted from the breakup of the centralized power of the Roman Catholic Church. Empowered to inquire freely and exercise the responsibility to analyze a standard for truth (the Bible) and to develop the political structure that best met their needs, set the stage for the development of republican government (rule of law).

You are an historian analyzing the effects of the Protestant Reformation on the technological development of Western Europe. You will be writing a book about the social problems during the pre-Reformation period when the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church exercised power over political and social life as well as over religious issues. Your aim is to help students understand how these social problems were addressed by the Protestant Reformation and how these new policies set the stage for the Scientific Revolution and the development of republican government, a government of the people based on the rule of law.

TASK:

Fill out the six public policy worksheets. Go to the websites and answer the questions assigned to your group. When you have answered these questions write a brief summary of your findings. Construct your historical analysis citing the documents. Explain how Luther’s or the Roman Catholic Church’s policy affected scientific inquiry and political freedom. You will then share this analysis with the class. Each group must take notes on the other group’s findings to write a final analysis showing how the policies put into place by the Protestant Reformation led to greater scientific development and political freedom.

Questions:

Define scientific method. Compare the scientific method and the primary source documents related to the Protestant Reformation (quotes from Luther, etc.). From this comparison, show how the Protestant reformation set in place the thinking and evidence-based freedom of inquiry that leads to scientific and technological discovery. How did the policies of the Roman Catholic Church stifle such inquiry? How did the Scientific Revolution undermine the authority of the Roman Catholic Church? How did the Roman Catholic Church react to the Protestant Reformation? Did the Church make genuine reforms, or were its “reforms” merely cosmetic, changes of style but not addressing the substance (doctrinal issues)? How did the Church react to the discoveries of the Scientific Revolution? How does the attitude toward government in the Declaration of Independence reflect the values of the Protestant Reformation?

PROCESS:

In groups of four, analyze the documents assigned to your group and answer the questions related to those documents. Then write a summary of your findings in essay form, using the task questions as a guide for content. Your group will then present its results to the whole class. You will be responsible for and tested on the results the whole class develops.

To complete your analysis and conclusion:

A. Research the websites.

B. Scan the documents and quote specific sections of the documents,

Handouts and/or your textbook as evidence.

C. Use the 6-step public policy approach:

1. Define and describe the problem (social conditions, players, public policy)

a. What was the policy of Luther?

b. What was the policy of the Roman Catholic Church?

2. Gather evidence for this problem. (Use documents)

3. Identify causes for this problem. (Compare the ideas in the documents.)

4. Describe and evaluate the existing policy for this problem. (Roman Catholic

Church’s policy)

5. Develop solutions/policies for the problems of this policy. (Luther’s solution,

Roman Catholic Church’s solution.)

6. Select the best policy for this problem.

D. Complete the six worksheets

E. Construct your historical analysis citing the documents. Explain how

Luther’s or the Roman Catholic Church’s policy affected scientific inquiry

and political freedom.

Resources

Search engines: Yahoo!

www.google.com

www.askjeeves.com

Websites:

Reformer’s Statements

http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?action=openPageViewer&docId=23150680

http://history.hanover.edu/early/Luther/nobility.htm Luther

http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/wittenberg/luther/web/cclib-1.html

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/calvin-oncivilgovt.html

Calvin

The Counter Reformation/Council of Trent

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/trent-booksrules.html

http://www.lepg.org/religion.htm

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/indexlibrorum.html

The Scientific Revolution

http://koning.ecsu.ctstateu.edu/Plants_Human/scimeth.html

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook09.html

Note: Go to Galileo Galilei: The Turning Point and Letter to the Duchess Christina of Tuscany

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook09.html#Galileo%20Galilei:%20The%20Turning%20Point

http://www.leaderu.com/science/kobe.html

http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/pub/soc.religion.christian/faq/galileo

http://www.equip.org/free/DC170-4.htm

United States Declaration of Independence and Constitution

http://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/

http://www.law.indiana.edu/uslawdocs/declaration.html

Evaluation

Each group will be graded according to the following simple table:

Performance	Needs improvement 1	Satisfactory 2	Good 3	Excellent 4
Completion of Worksheets (understood the social problem, its causes, and public policy that arose from it)
Completion of Analysis (analyzed the social problem, created and considered possible solutions, and evaluated the historical solution)
Oral Presentation (communicated facts and ideas clearly from the documents, and showed how they applied to each step in the public policy process)

Conclusion

At the end of this project, you should be able to demonstrate (through your analysis and oral presentations) an understanding of how the personal freedom and responsibility to analyze evidence brought about by the Protestant Reformation contributed to the technological and political advancement of Europe. You should also be familiar with the main events and major figures of this turning point in global history. In addition, you should be able to make connections to the world today (e.g., what would likely happen as nations are brought under Islamic (Sharia) law. Remember your predictions, because this might be the beginning of your next Web Quest.

Curriculum Standards: This Web Quest responds to the following curriculum standards:

English Language Arts Standards 1 & 3

Social Studies Standard 2:   World History

S Modern (policies on abortion, cloning, stem cell research)

Web Quest 2

We have seen from the analysis of the domination of the Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages and the opening of personal inquiry which led to the scientific method, that the personal responsibly evidence based freedom of thinking which still recognized the authority of the Bible (a text, evidence) as the primary source for truth led to the Scientific Revolution which opened up the modern sciences and led to technological innovations.

You are a policy analyst predicting the projected development of countries under Islamic rule. First find and describe the living conditions that are prevalent in Islamic countries. What technological advances have been developed in the past fifty years in Islamic countries (Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia) What conditions contributed to this? How has development taken place in these countries?

Islamic law dominates in these countries. How is this similar to the domination of the Roman Catholic Church in Europe in the Middle Ages? What could you expect in terms of development in countries under Sharia law?

Sources: Koran Islam Unveiled