Humanism

Today's meaning of the word humanism is very different what is meant by Renaissance humanism. In general, the modern word 'humanism' means "a view of life which displaces God and puts man at the centre."¹ In its contemporary meaning, humnism is a worldview. You can compare it to a religion without a god.

What modern humanism has in common with the Renaissance meaning of humanism is the emphasis on the human being. In 1486, an Italian philospher named Pico della Mirandola wrote Oration on the Dignity of Man. This short book is an example of this aspect of humanism: the human being in itself became more important during the Renaissance. However, you have to keep in mind that humanists still lokked on humanity from a Christian point of view. Man had "dignity" because he was created in the image of God.

Renaissance humanism is a term that was invented in the 19th century, so it was not a term that was used during the historical period of the Renaissance. The most common word that was used is 'humanist'. This word comes from a word that was frequently used by Cicero, a Roman writer: 'humanitas'. Humanitas, as Cicero used it, stands for the culture or the education that a man needs in order to develop himself completely.

Renaissance humanism aimed to imitate the lifestyle and the language of classical authors. Of course this lifestyle was not copied entirely. The classical lifestyle was reinvented so that it did not clash with Christianity. Humanists created a mixture of classical and Christian ideas. A leading figure in this process was the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus. Humanists not only studied the classical lifestyle, they also wanted to make it known to others. They did this by training themselves in eloquence: writing and speaking in a convincing way.

So humanism was in the first place an educational movement. Humanism was often called the "new learning". This movement began in Italy in the 14th century and spread to the rest of Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. Renaissance humanists wanted to break with the scholastic educational system of the Middle Ages, in which theology played the main role, and in which knowledge was not put into practice. According to humanism, learnin should be connected to public life. Learning should not just benefit yourself, but also your city and country.