chapter 5 vocabulary

Protestant Reformation

Massive schism within Christianity that had its formal beginning in 1517 with the German priest Martin Luther; the movement was radically innovative in its challenge to church authority and its endorsement of salvation by faith alone, and also came to express a variety of political, economic, and social tensions.

Martin Luther

German priest who issued the Ninety-Five Theses and began the Protestant Reformation with his public criticism of the Catholic Church’s theology and practice.

Thirty Years War

Catholic-Protestant struggle (1618–1648) that was the culmination of European religious conflict, brought to an end by the Peace of Westphalia and an agreement that each state was sovereign, authorized to control religious affairs within its own territory.

Counter-Reformation

An internal reform of the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century stimulated in part by the Protestant Reformation; at the Council of Trent (1545–1563), Catholic leaders clarified doctrine, corrected abuses and corruption, and put a new emphasis on education and accountability.

Taki Onqoy

Literally, “dancing sickness”; a religious revival movement in central Peru in the 1560s whose members preached the imminent destruction of Christianity and of the Europeans and the restoration of an imagined Andean golden age.

Jesuits in China

Series of Jesuit missionaries from 1550 to 1800 who, inspired by the work of Matteo Ricci, sought to understand and become integrated into Chinese culture as part of their efforts to convert the Chinese elite, although with limited success.

Wahhabi Islam

Major Islamic movement led by the Muslim theologian Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792) that advocated an austere lifestyle and strict adherence to the Islamic law; became an expansive state in central Arabia.

Wang Yangming

Influential Ming thinker (1472–1529) who argued that anyone could achieve a virtuous life by introspection and contemplation, without the extended education and study of traditional Confucianism

The Dream of the Red Chamber

Book written by Cao Xueqin that explores the life of an elite family with connections to the court; it was the most famous popular novel of mid-eighteenth-century China

Mirabai

One of India’s most beloved bhakti poets, who transgressed the barriers of caste and tradition

Sikhism

Religious tradition of northern India founded by Guru Nanak (1469–1539); combines elements of Hinduism and Islam and proclaims the brotherhood of all humans and the equality of men and women.

Scientific Revolution

The intellectual and cultural transformation that shaped a new conception of the material world between the mid-sixteenth and early eighteenth centuries in Europe; instead of relying on the authority of religion or tradition, its leading figures believed that knowledge was acquired through rational inquiry based on evidence, the product of human minds alone.

Copernicus

Polish mathematician and astronomer who was the first to argue in 1543 for the existence of a sun-centered universe, helping to spark the Scientific Revolution

Galileo

An Italian scientist who developed an improved telescope in 1609, with which he made many observations that undermined established understandings of the cosmos.

Issaac Newton

English scientist whose formulation of the laws of motion and mechanics is regarded as the culmination of the Scientific Revolution.

European Enlightenment

European intellectual movement of the eighteenth century that applied the principles of the Scientific Revolution to human affairs and was noted for its commitment to open-mindedness and inquiry and the belief that knowledge could transform human society

Voltaire

The pen name of François-Marie Arouet (1694–1778), a French writer whose work is often taken as a model of the Enlightenment’s outlook; noted for his deism and his criticism of traditional religion

Condorcet

The Marquis de Condorcet (1743–1794) was a French philosopher who argued that society was moving into an era of near-infinite improvability and could be perfected by human reason

kaozheng

Literally, “research based on evidence”; Chinese intellectual movement whose practitioners were critical of conventional Confucian philosophy and instead emphasized the importance of evidence and analysis, applied especially to historical documents