Did the Renaissance Birth Enlightenment Humanism?
by Richard Greydanus Guest lecturer proposes a reinterpretation of Renaissance history Back to My Papers ________________________________________ JENNIFER WEENING Guest lecturer Nicholas Terpstra, professor at the University of Toronto and member of Redeemer’s Academic Standards Committee, speaks to the Redeemer community on Civil Religion in Renaissance Italy. A professor at the University of Toronto and a member of Redeemer’s Academic Standards Committee, Nicholas Terpstra joins the ranks of guest lecturers here at Redeemer. On November 11, he addressed approximately 50 people on the topic of Civil Religion in Renaissance Italy. Considerable interest was shown by students, who made up half of those in attendance. The Renaissance is stereotypically labelled as the birthplace of an atheistic (or at least, agnostic) Enlightenment humanism. It was supposed to be a period of widespread rejection of an authoritarian and dogmatic Catholicism. As a historian, Professor Terpstra’s inquiries h
