Classical Belief Systems Intro
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Transcript of Classical Belief Systems Intro
CLASSICAL BELIEF
SYSTEMSIntro
Belief systems in CONTEXT Historians view belief systems in the
context of time and place. For example: Buddhists in India in the 300s ce were
not the same as Buddhists in Southeast Asia in the 1800s ce though some of the core beliefs remained unchanged.
Historians view belief systems as an influence ON culture AND influenced BY culture. For example: Christianity changed Roman culture
and the Renaissance in Europe influenced Christianity.
Judaism . . . Monotheism
Hinduism
OldestBelief System
ZoroastrianismGood vs Evil / Heaven
Gautama - the founder
Spread to East Asia
Christianity Jesus of Nazareth – Founder
Began as a Jewish sect & spread through the Roman World
Hinduism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism,
Daoism & Christianity
Belief Systems of the Classical Period
Foundations There is no recorded founder of
Hinduism – it is the oldest institutional religion of the early belief systems.
Judaism began in the Middle East around the 1200s bce when it had its own political empire.
First monotheistic religion
Foundations Daoism emerged in East Asia in the
600s to 300s BCE from the teachings of Laozi
Zoroastrianism arose in Persia in the 500s BCE from the teachings of Zarathustra
Foundations Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha),
the founder of Buddhism, was originally a Hindu in the upperclass.
Buddhism emerged in South Asia out of Hinduism starting in the 500s bce.
Foundations Jesus of Nazareth, the founder of
Christianity, was a lower-class Jew living in Roman controlled Middle East.
The Jesus movement became Christianity with non-Jewish converts.
Existence after Death
Hinduism and Buddhism – Existence is cyclical until one breaks from the cycle and becomes eternally spirit.
Zoroastrianism & Christianity – Existence is linear; one lives and then becomes eternally spirit.
Spread
Groups within Buddhism and Christianity supported missionaries – men and women who purposely took the message of a religion into different regions.
Religions also spread through conquest, along trade routes, and through migrations.
Spread
Buddhism spread from South Asia into East and SE Asia.
Buddhism by the 500s ce was stronger in areas where it spread than where it originated.
How does this compare to Zoroastrianism? How does this compare with Hinduism?
Spread
Judaism spread after the Romans exiled Jews to new territories in Europe
Christianity spread into the Roman Empire, into North and East Africa, and beyond.
Christianity by the 1200s was stronger in areas where it had spread than in where it originated.
Spread & CHANGE
As religions spread and new interpretations arose – there were changes, splits into different sects (or groups), and new influences
Texts The founders of Buddhism and
Christianity did not record their own statements or life story.
Which belief systems are connected to these texts?
Vedas and Upanishads
Torah
Gospels & Epistles
Analects
Sutras
Challenges to Society
Both Buddhism and Christianity, more than the other belief systems, challenged the social class system and women’s status.
Especially in the early centuries, these religions appealed to lower classes and women.
Greek Rationalism…What’s up with that???
In Greece, some intellectuals like SOCRATES, PLATO, and ARISTOTLE abandoned mythology and created a philosophy that emphasized. . .
Natural laws govern the world & humans can understand those laws through reason
Using reason to understand human behavior (first histories – Herodatus)
questioning of earlier “wisdom” and assumptions
---had a major influence on Western Civilization