Religion's Role In Western Civilization

One of the most important parts of any civilization is Religion. It plays a fundamental role in bestowing meaning and significance of human existence. Religion varies from culture to culture, but what remains the same throughout any religion is that it explains what we, as mere humans, cannot explain ourselves with science and technology. It bonds the people of a society together through the shared forms of beliefs and practices. Religion even can be connected to the non-religious aspects of social life like economics and politics. Religion sometimes can become corrupt, however, and this can lead to reforms and revolutions. An important revolution in western civilization was the Protestant Reformation during the Renaissance period which was
Part of this was because when the Ninety-Five Theses arrived in Rome, Pope Leo X acted by ordering the vicar-general of the Augustine Order to place a ban of silence on its monks. He did this in an effort to quiet the discontent of the monks without drawing attention to the growing schism in the church. Luther responded and sent a personal letter of clarification of his 95 Theses to the pope. As a result, Leo X then summoned Luther to appear before him in Rome. In 1521, Leo X excommunicates Luther from the Church. Luther was then ordered to appear before the Diet of Worms. The Edict of Worms of the assembly became known as “the final proclamation.” Prince Frederick tried to protect Luther and had him secretly removed to Wartburg Castle where he would live in exile for the next year. During that time that Luther also translated the New Testament into German, which encouraged the expanded reading of the Scriptures in a language the common people could understand. His translation would soon “increase individual reading of the Bible” and bring many more to question what the Church taught, as opposed to what they read in the scriptures.