HAPTER 5: Eurasian Cultural Traditions, 500 b.c.e.–500 c.e.

  • China and the Search for Order

· The Legalist Answer

-They believed that the answer was in rule and laws that were strictly enforced.

-They believed humans were in a way stupid except for the rulers of course.

-They promoted farmers and soldiers but the rest of the populations were thought of as useless.

· The Confucian Answer

-Here the focus was on morals.

-Confucius believed that to restore order, they needed to focus on their morals.

-To do that was to have a liberal arts education, have rituals and ceremonies, have personal reflection times and be willing to perfect their personal moral character.

-Confucianism was accepted and became part of their culture, so much so that it was part of the political and education system along with test taking.

· The Daoist Answer

They believed that the answer was in aligning yourself to nature.

-That there was a set order in nature and if we were to align with it there would be order.

-They were not focused on education or materials, instead they only had they needed for everyday survival, their life was simple.

-Daoist perspective was thought to be complementing to Confucian, like yin and yang.

-You would go to work and be more like the Confusion way and then return home to have a Daoist perspective.

  • Cultural Traditions of Classical India

· South Asian Religion: From Ritual Sacrifice to Philosophical Speculation

-Hinduism had no original founder but instead grew along with the Indian civilization.

-Commonality came through the sacred texts called the Vedas which were passed on through story telling and then around 600 BCE they were written in Sanskrit.

- The writings give us glimpses of their civilization.

- Another set of text is the Upanishads; these were from around 800 and 400 BCE which tried to bring meaning to sacrifices described in the Vedas.

- Upanishads shared the idea of Brahman, the World Soul, and the ultimate reality.

- It also shared about atman (individual human soul), moksha (liberation), and samsara (reincarnation).

· The Buddhist Challenge

-Founder was Siddhartha Gautama but those that followed him called him Buddha (Enlightened one).

-He taught that suffering came when people went after their wants and desires but that through a simple life, a moral life and with meditation you could have enlightenment thus no longer have pain.

-Buddhism was a simpler version of Hinduism.

-After some intervention, women were allowed to join nun order

-Women found some form of freedom.

-Modern form of Buddhism was formed and was called Mahayana.

· Hinduism as a Religion of Duty and Devotion

-Buddhism died out a bit and was intertwined into a broader Hindu tradition.

-Hinduism provided a path to liberation by following your assigned cast duties.

-Mahabharata and Ramayana, poems, came about as a newer Hinduism.

  • Moving Toward Monotheism: The Search for God in the Middle East

· Zoroastrianism

- Came about from the Persian prophet, Zarathustra around the 6th or 7th Century.

-They moved from many Gods to one God who ruled.

- Ahura Mazda was source of light and goodness if you aligned yourself with Ahura Mazda you would forever live in paradise but if you had instead aligned yourself with evil, Lie, you would then suffer for eternity.

- Teachings focused on their free will.

-this was never a missionary religion and therefore died out but traces of it can be seen in other religions.

· Judaism

- From the Middle East, the Hebrews and can be found in the Old Testament.

-Their God is Yahweh who asks for complete loyalty, whom you can communicate with, who is more holy than what he created.

-Is involved in social justice, brings the people out of the land of slavery, they keep their culture, then they return to their homeland.

-Understanding of this God builds a foundation for both Christianity and Islam.

  • The Cultural Tradition of Classical Greece: The Search for a Rational Order

· The Greek Way of Knowing

-Way of asking questions.

-between 300-600 BCE

-Seeking virtue and wisdom, they seek to find an explanation on how and why the world is the way it is without a religion.

-Some people from that time are Socrates (philosopher), Plato (ethics & government), Hippocrates (human body), and Aristotle (student of Plato and

· The Greek Legacy

-Christian theology used terms from Greek philosophical concepts.

-Greek texts were preserved

-Children attended the school that Plato founded.

-Greek works were translated in various languages and therefore influenced them.

  • Comparing Jesus and the Buddha

· The Lives of the Founders

-Gautama was born in luxury and Jesus was from lower-class family.

-They were both spiritual seekers, challenged values, focused on the importance of love & compassion, and asked for individuals to change.

-They were different in that Jesus believed in 1 deity, performed miracles, he taught for about 3 years, he challenged authority and was crucified as a criminal.

-Buddha on the other hand had no miracles, he had public life more than 40years, and he died of natural causes at 80 years.

· Establishing New Religions

-Neither Jesus nor Buddha meant to start a new religion but it happened.

-They both thought themselves to be regular humans but their followers made then gods.

-Christianity spread with Saint Paul around10-65 CE.

-Since the early message of Christianity was full inclusion it attracted many people to the religion and it spread.

-The caring way of each other was another thing that attracted people to the religion.

-Growth and spread of the religion usually happened after a miracle of sorts.

-Christianity became the official state religion which then made it possible for the spread of the religion and for Europe to be mostly Christian.

-Christianity adopted some of the ways of the religion there like including saints and accepting the winter solstice as Jesus birth date.

· Creating Institutions

-With Christianity, a hierarchical structure was developed in which the bishop of Rome/pope was the leader and then the patriarchs, bishops and priests followed behind.

-Women who once were part of the house church ceremonies were now being excluded and thus Christianity became a male dominated religion.

-Difference in doctrine and interpretation of teachings brought with it division with both the Buddhist and Christian religion.

-The emerging Buddhist religion shifted a bit and it didn’t have such a firm right or wrong idea.

-The Buddhist didn’t establish an overall hierarchial structure

Questions

1. What are some differences and similarities between Jesus and Buddha?

Similarities

They were both spiritual seekers, challenged values, focused on the importance of love & compassion, and asked for individual/personal change.

Differences

Gautama was born in luxury and Jesus was from lower-class family. They were different in that Jesus believed in 1 deity, performed miracles, he taught for about 3 years, he challenged authority and was crucified as a criminal. Buddha on the other hand had no miracles, he had public life more than 40years, and he died of natural causes at 80 years

3 .What is thought to be the Greeks’ way of knowing and does it include a particular religion?

The focus for them is more about the way you ask the question more than on what the answer will be. They were seeking virtue and wisdom; they seek to find an explanation on how and why the world is the way it is without a religion