A Journey Through Western Culture—from Apollo to Apollo

Author: Liu Wenrong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: From Jesus Christ to Martin Luther From Aristotle to Einstein From Homer's epics to stream-of-consciousness novels From Roman architecture to modernist art From court ballet to Hollywood movies This book guides you through the timeline of Western culture in a quick and vivid way. Western culture has experienced five eras: the intuitive era of antiquity, the faith-based era of the Middle Ages, the era of inquiry during the Renaissance, the creative era from the 17th to the 19th centuries, and the reflective era of the 20th century. Ancient Greek and Roman culture and medieval Christian culture are the two major sources of Western culture. Their conflict and fusion formed the culture of the Renaissance. After about two hundred years of evolution, it finally gave rise to the truly mature mainstream culture of the West, which is characterized by "secular idealism" in modern Western culture. This book outlines the origins and development of Western culture along the thread of this era, with religion, philosophy, art, and science as the four major cultural dimensions, in the simplest way possible.