The background of church literature

The Middle Ages refers to the period of Christian cultural domination from the destruction of the Western Roman Empire by the Germans in 476 AD to the Renaissance in14th century. The church brings all cultures into the theological category and serves religion. This self-centered ruling reality has seriously hindered the development of culture. The Middle Ages in Europe was the century of Christianity, which lasted for thousands of years. The spread of Christianity had a far-reaching impact on literature. Mr. Zhu Guangqian once said: Poetry is not a tool to discuss philosophy and publicize religion, but if there is no philosophy and religion behind it, it will not be easy to reach a profound realm. The depth and breadth of western literature not only benefited from the philosophy of ancient Greece, but also gained rich nutrition from Christian culture.

The most important event in medieval European society was that Christianity eventually became the dominant ideology in Europe, which established the essence of European culture and profoundly influenced European literature. In 529 AD, the Byzantine emperor Justinian closed the last heretical school, and European culture was surrounded by Christianity. In the past 1000 years, Christian thought penetrated into all levels of social life, influenced the ideology of people of different classes, endowed Europe with a unified ideological background, and combined with secular political forces to form a social structure of the integration of politics and religion in the Middle Ages.

The basic ideological characteristics of European feudal society are: Christianity occupies an absolute dominant position in culture, education, philosophy, literature and art and even the whole spiritual field; Christianity became the pillar of European feudalism. 1405, the eastern and western factions of Christianity split, and the western faction was called Catholicism. The main weapon of the ideological rule of the church is the Bible. The Bible is divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament (the New Testament is the most important in western church literature and the Old Testament is the most important in the East).