Mini Midterm Outline

I. Intro
II. Dark Ages
A. St. Augustine
1. ugly, sinful, evil, dark outside
2. must hope to remove faulty impressions of sensory knowledge to attain divine wisdom
3. must rely on Church/God to achieve enlightenment
B. Romanesque - Old St. Peter's
1. 320 CE in Rome
2. Roman used Basilicas as courtrooms (secular)
3. architectural features (vaults, ambulatory, nave...)
4. symbolic of ugly/simple appearance = our physical world and beautiful internally = God's world
5. stole from Greek pagan temples, thus a double purpose - destroying the Greek pagan ideas and using them to build up the Christian worship
T. 1033 - the people realize that Jesus is not coming back and thus explore the world for answers.
III. Middle Ages
A. Neo-Platonism
1. Plotinus says that we don't need outside sources to achieve enlightenment
2. body = agent/prison of soul
3. St. Augustine states we only need to depend on ourselves b/c God is w/in us already thus we have the power to be enlightened
4. a piece of God's soul lies w/in us = universal goodness (happiness)
5. new-Plato but still following Allegory of the Cave
a. physical body is prison to our good souls
b. grace of God breaks our chains and free us b/c we pursue the truth (small streak of light)
B. Abbey Saint Denis (1140-1144) & Abbot Suger
1. Abbot Suger = Neo-Platonist
a. didn't believe that reading the Bible could allow one to reach divine revelation
b. b/c at that time period, most were illiterate thus use art to allow them to reach divine revelation
2. designed a new style -- Gothic Architecture for the Abbey St. Denis (1st Gothic cathedral)
a. main idea = LIGHT
b. Rose window - brings in light
c. flying buttresses - allows support to make larger clerestory windows
d. stained glass - told stories, gave a sense of awe to the ones praying inside
e. vaults - (4/6 partied) allows support
T. Instead of just having science and religion separate , now used to support each other
IV. Renaissance
A. Rebirth of past philosophers & intro of Muslim philosophers
1. Aristotle, Averroes, Avicenna
2. reject Neo-Platonism b/c science and logic are tools to understand God and his creations.
B. Thomas Aquinas
1. tried to use logic/reasoning to prove the existence of God
C. Quran Quotes
1. "The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of martyrs."
2. explaining how serious they are about studying the world
3. believe that to know the world would bring them a step closer to God (look at creations to know about the creator)
D. I-Search - Architecture
1. Math came from Islam to make proportional buildings of perfection
2. The Great Mosque of Samara
E. Brunelleschi
1. used mathematics to prove logically the concept of linear perspective
2. this knowledge contribute to the architectural developments
V. Conclusion