Text 1: Historian Faruq argues that the printing of vernacular Bibles drove early modern literacy. As ordinary readers gained access to scripture in their own language, the demand for reading skills surged, schools multiplied, and literacy rates rose across Protestant Europe.
Text 2: Historian Park accepts Faruq's correlation but reverses the causal arrow. Vernacular Bibles, she argues, were printed in growing numbers because literacy was already rising, driven by commerce, urban growth, and the needs of merchant accounting. Religion shaped what people read, but not whether they could read at all.
The authors most clearly disagree about
- Acheck_circle
whether religion or commerce was the primary driver of rising literacy.
- B
whether printing existed in early modern Europe.
- C
whether vernacular Bibles were printed.
- D
whether literacy rose in early modern Europe.
Explanation
Both accept the literacy rise and Bible printing. They disagree on what caused literacy to rise. C captures the dispute.