Religious Movements and Reformations
This Mughal emperor was known for his policy of religious tolerance and attempted to create a state religion that combined elements of Islam and Hinduism.
Akbar
This 16th-century scientist’s heliocentric model of the solar system contradicted the geocentric views upheld by the Catholic Church.
Nicolaus Copernicus
Christian missionaries in this region faced challenges not only from indigenous religions but also from Confucian traditions, as well as the state’s Confucian bureaucrats.
China
The ruler of a European state, granted the authority to determine the official religion of the state, was a key feature of the Peace of Westphalia. Significant in ending religious conflicts between Catholic and Protestant states in Europe.
Religious sovereignty
The Protestant Reformation not only challenged the religious authority of the Catholic Church but also led to major political upheavals, including these wars between Catholics and Protestants.
Religious wars
This Protestant reformer’s ideas about justification by faith alone were central to the beginning of the Reformation in Europe.
Martin Luther
This invention, which spread widely in the 16th century, played a crucial role in the dissemination of the ideas of the Scientific Revolution and the Protestant Reformation.
The printing press
This group of Christian missionaries, often associated with the spread of Catholicism in the Americas and Asia, emphasized education, scientific learning, and cultural exchange.
Jesuits
This form of Christianity was actively promoted by Spanish colonizers in the Americas, often merging with indigenous beliefs to create new religious forms.
Andean Christianity
This philosophical approach, which emerged during the Scientific Revolution, emphasized the importance of empirical evidence and observation in the pursuit of knowledge.
Empiricism
In response to the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church convened this council to address the issues raised by reformers and to clarify Catholic doctrine.
The Council of Trent
The idea that the universe operates according to natural laws, which could be understood through reason, became a central concept during this intellectual movement.
The Enlightenment
This Asian country was one of the few where Christianity spread in the early modern era but faced significant resistance from its rulers and later persecution.
Japan
This ruler's policies helped shape the spread of Protestantism in parts of Northern Europe, particularly in England.
Henry VIII
This movement in Japan, which sought to suppress Christianity, led to the eventual persecution of Christian missionaries and converts during the 17th century.
The Tokugawa Shogunate’s anti-Christian policy
This religious movement in the Arabian Peninsula aimed to purify Islam by removing what its followers saw as later innovations and returning to the practices of the early Muslim community.
Wahhabism
This scientist’s laws of motion and universal gravitation were foundational to the development of classical physics and were widely accepted in the Enlightenment.
Isaac Newton
This term describes the blending of African, Catholic, and indigenous religious practices in the Americas, especially among enslaved people.
Syncretism
This 17th-century scientific thinker is famous for arguing that the mind is a blank slate at birth, emphasizing the role of experience in shaping human understanding.
John Locke
The spread of Christianity in sub-Saharan Africa was often linked with this European imperial system, which was both a political and economic force.
Colonialism
This German region was one of the first to adopt Lutheranism and became a center for the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century.
Saxony
This English philosopher, known for his work on empiricism, emphasized the role of observation and experimentation in gaining knowledge.
Francis Bacon
This Caribbean religion, practiced by descendants of African slaves, blends elements of African traditions, Catholicism, and spirit worship.
Vodou
This philosopher’s ideas about government, particularly the social contract, deeply influenced both Enlightenment thought and later revolutionary movements.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
This religious and cultural movement in the 16th century sought to reform Hindu practices and promote devotion to individual deities, while also challenging traditional caste distinctions.
Bhakti movement