How did the humanist mindset differ from the medieval mindset?

Answer 1

Humanist scholars influenced more than just literature. With their independent thinking, they began to challenge long-accepted traditions, assumptions and institutions. As they made all sorts of unsettling discoveries, it further validated their desire to challenge and question nearly every thing.

Answer 2

Medieval people, being very focused on religion and Christianity, had a mindset that relied completely on God for anything and everything. The humanist mindset recognized the power of humans to enact change and to do things. The central God vs. human difference is the main difference in the two mindsets.

Answer 3

The humanist, be he secular humanist or religious humanist, looks at everything from the point of view of the human person as the center of the universe. Thus they define everything as it relates to men. The Catholic Church looks at the world as something created by God and entirely dependent on Him. To the Catholic, the world has no meaning at all, by itself, the only meaning that it has it what God, when He created it, gave it.