help in history

Amar Alkulaib

History 2070

Essay 1

Christianity and Islam

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Christianity seemed to be at crossroads. One of the reasons for Christianity’s revitalization in the two centuries is the reformation that occurred in the 16th century. This reformation was birthed Protestantism, one of the three main arms of Christianity. The leaders in the reformation were John Calvin and Martin Luther. Reformation brought forth numerous social and economic effects. It was in the 16th and 17th centuries, certain revolutions took place in the Islam religion. In the 16th century, there were increased trade interactions between the Middle East and Europe. The interaction was mainly limited to trade that was conducted by middlemen. The interaction grew, and the two regions began interacting directly. In the 16th century, the first English man converted to Islam. The man was John Nelson. The interaction and bond between the two regions grew further as a result of slavery that was both approved and accepted by both. The sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries marked some of the most significant events in both Christianity and Islam with vigorous expansion in Europe and Indonesia at the time, respectively.

Christianity

Martin Luther was at the center of the Reformation, and he felt that the doctrine of the church was hypocritical. In German, reformation diversified almost instantly with other reforms forming the shape as well. Luther did not mean to defile the Catholic Church, but he rejected its doctrine. He was not for the idea that the wine and bread for the Holy Communion were the actual blood and body of the Christ. Instead, he claimed that the body of Christ is present in its physical elements in all places because He is omnipresent (Gonzalez, 2014).

Martin Luther also differed with the Catholic doctrine in the ideologies of grace and redemption. According to him, the scripture by itself is authoritative. Therefore, justification on the basis of faith and not good works is not only pervasive but also hypocritical. As such, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. He left and intensified his efforts towards reformation. He just did not support the idea of relating God’s free gift of grace with good works and a complicated system of indulgences.

Other than Martin Luther and Calvin, there were other reformers in the 16th and 17th centuries. One of them was the radical reformers who also played an important role in revolutionizing Christianity. The radical reformers claimed that baptism should not be performed on infants but rather on adults. They felt that it was logical to baptize adults because they have already professed their faith in Christ. The reformers faced fierce opposition, but they ended up surviving it all (Gonzalez, 2014).

Spread of Christianity in the 16th and 17th Centuries

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Christianity spread and expanded to numerous places. In the 16th century when Reformation was at its peak, Christianity spread vigorously throughout England. However, many people in the 16th century belonged to the Church of England. In the 17th century, several independent churches came to being, and they went ahead to establish their bases all over Europe. In essence, in the 16th and 17th centuries, Christianity mainly spread and expanded in vigorous proportion in Europe.

Islam

Slavery in the Middle East and Europe was not only an economic but also a social factor in the interaction between the Middle East and Europe. A majority of the slaves hailed from warfare, the international slave trade or privateering. Slavery was mostly concentrated around the Mediterranean region. Only a few of Arabian slaves in Europe were of the Muslim religion by origin. Most of these slaves were baptized into Christianity just before being sold as slaves for the first time, and they were given new Christian names (Verhoeven, 2014).

At the time, most Muslim slaves changed their religion to Christianity because of social pressures. For them to rise above the state of being a slave to at least becoming a serf, they were required to convert to Christianity. The number of learned Muslim captives was negligent. The few who were intellectual were in high demand in the slave markets. Learned Muslim captives were regarded highly by their authorities, and they were priced highly as well. They could be used to translate Arabic manuscripts for the Europeans.

In the 17th century, the Islamic civilization in the Middle East developed friendly relations with the English people. The Muslim women were admired by the English men, and they thought that was how the English women should also be. The Muslim women were submissive, unlike the English women who knew that they were free to do whatever they wanted. That fact was believed to lead to moral deterioration among the English women. In the 17th century, Islam was well received in the early modern Europe (Verhoeven, 2014).

Spread of Islam in the 16th and 17th Centuries

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Islam spread vigorously in Indonesia. The parts of Indonesia that expired a vigorous spread of the Islam religion are; Sumatra, Java, Malay Peninsula, and Brunei. There is no precise explanation as to why there were no significant numbers of Indonesian people converting to Islam until the 16th century. The Muslims had been

In over all, Christianity manly spread in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with Islam spreading in parts of Indonesia. Martin Luther, Calvin and the radical reformers played an important part revolutionizing Christianity and helping the growth of Protestantism. Slavery was what facilitated numerous changes in the Islam religion in the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. It brought the Middle East and Europe together, and pushed the religion wide and far into Indonesia.

References

Gonzalez, J. L. (2014). The story of christianity: Volume 2. Place of publication not identified: HarperOne.

Verhoeven, F. R. J. (2013). Islam: Its Origin and Spread in Words, Maps and Pictures. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.