History & Area Studies / Thematic History / Social & Cultural History
How Renaissance Artists & Reformation Priests Invented the Modern Ego
This video explores Thomas Cahill's book 'Heretics and Heroes,' revealing how the Renaissance's celebration of human beauty and the Reformation's emphasis on individual conscience collided to forge the modern self. From Donatello's defiant nude David to Martin Luther's stand at the Diet of Worms, discover how art, faith, and the printing press shattered the medieval world and birthed our own. Learn why the 'ego' we take for granted was a radical, bloody invention—and how figures like Shakespeare and Rembrandt offered a path toward forgiveness beyond sectarian violence.
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