... A.D., played a crucial role in challenging the church's authority. The pope identifying the spread of Islam as evil requested all of Europe embark on a "Crusade" to defeat the infidels. As the battles were fought, great treasures were found in the form of books and knowledge. These books were crude translations of old Greek texts, containing information which would eventually produce the waning of Church authority in the future. The Renaissance marked the beginning of intellectual re-birth. Writers such ... D' Tat is supreme especially in terms of the church belligerence. In the middle ...

• Word Count: 1327
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... century CE and continued to exert an important influence on ancient religion into the fourth century. While the most recent scholarship has tended to emphasize pagan and Jewish, as well as Christian, forms of Gnosticism (beginning in the first century), the major gnostic impact was made on the doctrine and structures of the Christian church in the second and early third centuries. Its critics, both Christian and Pagan, seem to ... and its adoration of the individual soul can be seen in the works of such ur-American titans of the spirit as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mormon founder Joseph Sm...

• Word Count: 1846
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... played an all-encompassing role over the lives of the people and the government. As the Dark Ages came to a close the ideas of the Renaissance started to take hold, and the church's power gradually began to dwindle. The monar-chies of Europe also began to grow replacing the church's power. Mon-archies, at the close of the Middle Ages and the dawn of the Renais-sance, did not so much seek the guidance of the church as much as it sought ... to his messenger, Muhammad. According to Islamic beliefs, Muhammad is the last of a series of prophets (includ-ing Adam, Noah, Jesus, and others). Muh...

• Word Count: 1708
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School