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In Thomas a Kempis's book, "The imitation of Christ", he seems to think of a renaissance person as revolving his/her life around Jesus. In the book, he says "Remember how dry and how undevout you are without Jesus, and how unwise, how vain, and how ignorant you are when you desire anything but Jesus. Truly, such a desire is more harmful to you than if you lost all the world. What can this world give you save through the help of Jesus. To be without Jesus is the pain of hell, and to be with him is a pleasant paradise." It seems to me here that Kempis views Jesus as the key to life and happiness, and without him, you are nothing. He also says "He who seeks any other thing in religion than god alone and the salvation of his soul will find nothing there but trouble and sorrow". I think Kempis views a true renaissance person as a hard working person who is truly devoted to their religion and nothing else. Kempis also believes that humility plays a big factor in being a renaissance person. He seems to think that a person should dislike all temporary things in life and focus on Jesus himself, and never think of ones self on the same level as jesus ever.

Pico Della Mirandola has some of the same views as Kempis, but seems to think that humans should have some freedom, rather than rely on God, while Kempis seems to tell us to rely on God only. In Pico Della Mirandolas book "Of the Dignity of Man", he says "Imagine! The great generosity of God! The happiness of man! to manit is allowed to be whatever he chooses to be." I think this quote by Mirandola seems to contradict Kempis's view, Mirandola to think that people are free to do whatever they wanna do while they are on this earth, and express themselves however they want to, as long as they believe in God, while kempis tells people to devote all of their time to God and not focus any attention on temporary things. Although Mirandola seems to contradict Kempis, he goes on to say "Those who deviate from the heavenly law become animals." He sounds more like Kempis in in this quote.

All in all, Mirandola and Kempis seem to think along the same line, viewing a renaissance person as a true devotee to god, Mirandola just seems to be more leniant in saying that humans should be able to make their own choices, as long as they have faith in God.

Cory

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: In Thomas a Kempis's book, "The imitation of Christ", he seems to think of a renaissance person as revolving his/her life around Jesus. In the book, he says "Remember how dry and how undevout you are without Jesus, and how unwise, how vain, and how ignorant you are when you desire anything but Jesus. Truly, such a desire is more harmful to you than if you lost all the world. What can this world give you save through the help of Jesus. To be without Jesus is the pain of hell, and to be with him is a pleasant paradise." It seems to me here that Kempis views Jesus as the key to life and happiness, and without him, you are nothing. He also says "He who seeks any other thing in religion than god alone and the salvation of his soul will find nothing there but trouble and sorrow". I think Kempis views a true renaissance person as a hard working person who is truly devoted to their religion and nothing else. Kempis also believes that humility plays a big factor in being a renaissance person. He seems to think that a person should dislike all temporary things in life and focus on Jesus himself, and never think of ones self on the same level as jesus ever. : Pico Della Mirandola has some of the same views as Kempis, but seems to think that humans should have some freedom, rather than rely on God, while Kempis seems to tell us to rely on God only. In Pico Della Mirandolas book "Of the Dignity of Man", he says "Imagine! The great generosity of God! The happiness of man! to manit is allowed to be whatever he chooses to be." I think this quote by Mirandola seems to contradict Kempis's view, Mirandola to think that people are free to do whatever they wanna do while they are on this earth, and express themselves however they want to, as long as they believe in God, while kempis tells people to devote all of their time to God and not focus any attention on temporary things. Although Mirandola seems to contradict Kempis, he goes on to say "Those who deviate from the heavenly law become animals." He sounds more like Kempis in in this quote. : All in all, Mirandola and Kempis seem to think along the same line, viewing a renaissance person as a true devotee to god, Mirandola just seems to be more leniant in saying that humans should be able to make their own choices, as long as they have faith in God. : Cory : :

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