1. CLASSICAL
BELIEF SYSTEMS
In CONTEXT

2. Belief systems in CONTEXT
 Historians view religion 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 c.e. though some of the core beliefs remained
unchanged.
 Historians view religions as an
influence ON culture AND influenced BY
culture.
 For example: Christianity changed Roman culture
and the Renaissance in Europe influenced
Christianity.

3. Belief systems as a study topic
 Historiansview religions as a
part of human experience
 For example: Hinduism is not judged as
right or wrong in its beliefs or
practices, but interpreted in how it
influenced human history as it started in
South Asia and spread elsewhere.
 Confucianism is not judged as good or
bad, but understood in the ways it
influenced Chinese social classes, etc.

4. Hinduism, Judaism, Zoroa
strianism, Buddhism, Gree
k Rationalism, Daoism &
Christianity
Belief Systems of the Classical
Period

5. 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

6. Foundations
 Daoism emerged in East Asia in the
600s to 300s BCE from the
teachings of Laozi and later
Zhuangzi
 Zoroastrianism arose in Persia in
the 500s BCE from the teachings of
Zarathustra

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. Existence after Death
 Hinduism and Buddhism – Existence is
cyclical until one breaks from the cycle
and becomes eternally spirit.
 Judaism (some forms), Zoroastrianism, &
Christianity – Existence is linear; one
lives and then becomes eternally spirit.

10. 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.

12. 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?

14. 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.

17. Spread & CHANGE
 As religions spread and new
interpretations arose – there were
changes, splits into different sects (or
groups), and new influences

21. 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

22. 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.

23. Greek Rationalism…What’s up
with that???
 Greece-polytheism remained
 Intellectuals abandoned mythology
 Natural laws govern world
 Humans can understand those laws
 Power of Human Reason!
 KEY ELEMENT-the way questions are asked
(argument, logic, questioning of received
wisdom)

24. Greek Rationalism…What’s up
with that???
 Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
 Constant questioning of assumptions
 Applied rationalism to understanding human
behavior..Herodotus-the first historian (why
did the Persians and Greeks fight each
other?)
 Influenced later Western Civs-knowledge
preserved by Byzantines and Islam

25.  Religion Quiz