Your first assignment will be to investigate the middle ages. This gives us a backdrop to many of the critical developments that define modern European history. Our first conversation will be about Christianity and the church. No such thing as sep of church and state. This is also pre-reformation. There is no such thing as toleration for "other" understandings of how Christianity was to be practiced.
How would you evaluate the papacy's grip on European politics, economy, and culture in the 13c and 14c?
What were the issues at stake in the controversies between Pope Boniface VIII and the king of France?
Why was Dante's Divine Comedy considered to be a synthesis of the medieval world view?
You can look these topic up in Speilvogel. Record them as notes and then we will have a conversation on the topic in the blog.
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I failed to mention this should be completed by Thursday August 7th 9:00 am. Thanks. MZ
In European news...(We will be looking at BBC World on our blog)...What Russian writer died? Why was his work so important?
In Russia, they lost the author Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He wrote books such as "The Gulag Archipeligo" and "One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" which illuminated the acts of Stalins regime.
Nice job Ian. One of Russia's best authors for sure. One of my favorite books is "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisnovich". I read this in college for the first time and it made me very interested in the topic of Stalinism. In many ways the futuristic literature of George Orwell is all too real due to the accounts of A. Solzhenitsyn. The "acts" of Stalin are very horrific and at the same time reveal the instruments of control in the world of "mass society". Opposition voices that reject the "general will" paid a huge price...yes death but also "reeducation camps". The gulags define perhaps the worst of what it takes to control a society. Solzhenitsyn made this picture lucid. Perhaps when Americans think of GITMO...one of the first associations with a camp void of due process and Constitutional access is Gulag. What are your thought?
1) the papacy had total control over the european government for many years. During the 13th and 14th century its grip on the monarchys began to weaken. No matter the power it held, it also had the power to control much of europe's economy given it had so much of the world's valuables.
2)During the 13th and 14th century the french power began to pull away from the church. Philip, king of france, removed the clergy from all power in the administration of law. So Boniface denied taxation of the clergy. There was much pulling between the two leaders, eventually leading to the excamunication of Philip. In the end, it did teach the papacy to stay out of governmental affairs.
3) Dante's Divine Comedy is centered around the different levels of moral good...or there lack of. During the medieval era there was much debate about the combination of divine views and moral views, similar to that in The Divine Comedy
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