How Did Christianity Encourage Social Change

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Throughout the periods 1450 to 1750, Christianity both promoted and impeded societal changes through major roles of authority, abuse of wealth and power, and strong influences on the overall society. While some scholars may believe that the change was paramount to Christianity during this time, others would tend to disagree. During the early 19th century, Christianity impeded and promoted changes using intellectual, social and political aspects. The Organized Church impeded change using intellectual factors. The religion of Christianity promoted enlightened people to question the ideology of their God and lean more towards a scientific method in order to look at the world around them. The church used superstition, threats of eternal damnation, and promises of heaven, to control masses of ignorant people in Europe, since the time of the crusades. It represented a wealthy capitalist organization, like a huge cooperation, exploiting the spiritual needs common to many humans especially at that time period. A great example of how Christianity stifled social change is the idea that the earth was the center of the solar system. Astronomers such as Galileo knew that the sun was the center rather than the earth, but the church suppressed new ideas and new information from reaching the people. The church forced…show more content…
Before Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation in 1517, printers who translated the bible into a language the people could understand, were burned at the stake by the church. The church did not want anyone to challenge its position of wealth and privilege. Luther himself translated the bible into German, and the church would have burned him alive if they had captured him. It is very easy to make a case against the church as a suppressor of societal development and
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