1122 BCE - Beginning of Zhou Dynasty
6th century BCE - Time of Buddha & Confucius
439-399 BCE - Life of Socrates
403-221 BCE - Age of warring states in China
1st Century CE - Life of Jesus
4th Century CE - Christianity becomes the official Roman Religion
Daoism- a Chinese mystical philosophy traditionally founded by Lao-tzu in the sixth century b.c. that teaches conformity to the Tao by unassertive action and simplicity
Vedas- any of four canonical collections of hymns, prayers, and liturgical formulas that comprise the earliest Hindu sacred writings
Siddhartha Gautama - Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni, or simply the Buddha, was a sage on whose teachings Buddhism was founded.
Bhagavad Gita- a Hindu devotional work in poetic form
Judaism - a religion developed among the ancient Hebrews and characterized by belief in one transcendent God who has revealed himself to Abraham, Moses, and the Hebrew prophets and by a religious life in accordance with Scriptures and rabbinic traditions
Greek rationalism – A way of thinking that led to a more ethical lifestyle, encouraged education, and a lot of the greater Greek intellectuals had a great commitment to a rational and nonreligious explanation for the material world.
Socrates - a classical Greek (Athenian) philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. He is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes.
Plato - Plato was a philosopher and mathematician in Classical Greece, and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world.
Aristotle - Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist born in the Macedonian city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece
Filial piety - reverence for parents considered in Chinese ethics the prime virtue and the basis of all right human relations
Saint Paul - Considered one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age. In the mid-30s to the mid-50s, he founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe. Paul took advantage of his status as both a Jew and a Roman citizen to minister to both Jewish and Roman audiences.
Christianity - the religion derived from Jesus Christ, based on the Bible as sacred scripture, and professed by Eastern, Roman Catholic, and Protestant bodies
Perpetua - Saints Perpetua and Felicity are Christian martyrs of the 3rd century. Perpetua was a married noblewoman, said to have been 22 years old at the time of her death, and mother of an infant she was nursing.
6th century BCE - Time of Buddha & Confucius
439-399 BCE - Life of Socrates
403-221 BCE - Age of warring states in China
1st Century CE - Life of Jesus
4th Century CE - Christianity becomes the official Roman Religion
Daoism- a Chinese mystical philosophy traditionally founded by Lao-tzu in the sixth century b.c. that teaches conformity to the Tao by unassertive action and simplicity
Vedas- any of four canonical collections of hymns, prayers, and liturgical formulas that comprise the earliest Hindu sacred writings
Siddhartha Gautama - Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni, or simply the Buddha, was a sage on whose teachings Buddhism was founded.
Bhagavad Gita- a Hindu devotional work in poetic form
Judaism - a religion developed among the ancient Hebrews and characterized by belief in one transcendent God who has revealed himself to Abraham, Moses, and the Hebrew prophets and by a religious life in accordance with Scriptures and rabbinic traditions
Greek rationalism – A way of thinking that led to a more ethical lifestyle, encouraged education, and a lot of the greater Greek intellectuals had a great commitment to a rational and nonreligious explanation for the material world.
Socrates - a classical Greek (Athenian) philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. He is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes.
Plato - Plato was a philosopher and mathematician in Classical Greece, and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world.
Aristotle - Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist born in the Macedonian city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece
Filial piety - reverence for parents considered in Chinese ethics the prime virtue and the basis of all right human relations
Saint Paul - Considered one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age. In the mid-30s to the mid-50s, he founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe. Paul took advantage of his status as both a Jew and a Roman citizen to minister to both Jewish and Roman audiences.
Christianity - the religion derived from Jesus Christ, based on the Bible as sacred scripture, and professed by Eastern, Roman Catholic, and Protestant bodies
Perpetua - Saints Perpetua and Felicity are Christian martyrs of the 3rd century. Perpetua was a married noblewoman, said to have been 22 years old at the time of her death, and mother of an infant she was nursing.
I. China and the Search for Order
A. The Legalist Answer
1. High rewards, heavy punishments
2. Qin Shihuangdi
B. The Confucian Answer
1. Confucius, Analects, & Confucianism
2. Moral example of superiors
3. Unequal relationships governed by ren
4. Education and state bureaucracy
5. Filial piety and gender expectations
6. Secular
C. The Daoist Answer
1. Laozi’s Daodejing and Zhuangzi
2. Withdrawal into nature
3. Spontaneous natural behavior not rigid education
4. Dao (“The Way”)
5. Contradict or complement Confucianism?
II. Cultural Traditions of Classical India
A. South Asian Religion: From Ritual Sacrifice to Philosophical Speculation
1. Vedas (1500–600 b.c.e.), Brahmins, and rituals
2. Upanishads (800–400 b.c.e.)
3. Atman and Brahman
B. The Buddhist Challenge
1. Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 566–ca. 486 b.c.e.)
2. The Buddha’s teachings and nirvana
3. Relationship to Hinduism
4. Restrictions and opportunities for women
5. Popular appeal
6. Theravada
7. Mahayana’s bodhisattvas
C. Hinduism as a Religion of Duty and Devotion
1. Mahabharata, Bhagavad-Gita, and Ramayana
2. Bhakti
3. Buddhism absorbed back into Hinduism
III. Toward Monotheism: The Search for God in the Middle East
A. Zoroastrianism
1. Zarathustra (seventh to sixth century b.c.e.)
2. Persian state support, Achaemenid Dynasty (558–330 b.c.e.)
3. Ahura Mazda versus Angra Mainyu
4. Human free will, struggle of good versus evil, a savior, and judgment day
B. Judaism
1. Migrations and exiles of a small Hebrew community
2. One exclusive and jealous god
3. Loyalty to Yahweh and obedience to his laws
IV. The Cultural Tradition of Classical Greece: The Search for a Rational Order
A. The Greek Way of Knowing
1. Questions, not answers
2. Socrates (469–399 b.c.e.), Plato (429–348 b.c.e.), and Aristotle (384–322 b.c.e.)
3. Rational and non-religious analysis of the world
B. The Greek Legacy
1. Alexander the Great, Rome, and the Academy in Athens
2. The loss and recovery of Greece in Europe
3. Greek learning in the Islamic world
V. The Birth of Christianity… with Buddhist Comparisons
A. The Lives of the Founders
1. Encounter with a higher level of reality
2. Messages of love
3. Jesus’ miracles and dangerous social critique
B. The Spread of New Religions
1. New religions after their deaths
2. Paul (10–65 c.e.)
3. Lower social classes and women
4. Non-European Christianity
5. Christianity as a Roman religion
C. Institutions, Controversies, and Divisions
1. The exclusion of women from leadership
2. Debates over doctrine and texts
3. Council orthodoxy and expulsion
4. Roman and Greek cultural traditions
5. Diversity in the Buddhist world
VI. Reflections: Religions and Historians
A. Secular, evidence based history versus faith
B. Change of time in the faith?
C. Verifying the divine?
D. Schisms within the faiths
A. The Legalist Answer
1. High rewards, heavy punishments
2. Qin Shihuangdi
B. The Confucian Answer
1. Confucius, Analects, & Confucianism
2. Moral example of superiors
3. Unequal relationships governed by ren
4. Education and state bureaucracy
5. Filial piety and gender expectations
6. Secular
C. The Daoist Answer
1. Laozi’s Daodejing and Zhuangzi
2. Withdrawal into nature
3. Spontaneous natural behavior not rigid education
4. Dao (“The Way”)
5. Contradict or complement Confucianism?
II. Cultural Traditions of Classical India
A. South Asian Religion: From Ritual Sacrifice to Philosophical Speculation
1. Vedas (1500–600 b.c.e.), Brahmins, and rituals
2. Upanishads (800–400 b.c.e.)
3. Atman and Brahman
B. The Buddhist Challenge
1. Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 566–ca. 486 b.c.e.)
2. The Buddha’s teachings and nirvana
3. Relationship to Hinduism
4. Restrictions and opportunities for women
5. Popular appeal
6. Theravada
7. Mahayana’s bodhisattvas
C. Hinduism as a Religion of Duty and Devotion
1. Mahabharata, Bhagavad-Gita, and Ramayana
2. Bhakti
3. Buddhism absorbed back into Hinduism
III. Toward Monotheism: The Search for God in the Middle East
A. Zoroastrianism
1. Zarathustra (seventh to sixth century b.c.e.)
2. Persian state support, Achaemenid Dynasty (558–330 b.c.e.)
3. Ahura Mazda versus Angra Mainyu
4. Human free will, struggle of good versus evil, a savior, and judgment day
B. Judaism
1. Migrations and exiles of a small Hebrew community
2. One exclusive and jealous god
3. Loyalty to Yahweh and obedience to his laws
IV. The Cultural Tradition of Classical Greece: The Search for a Rational Order
A. The Greek Way of Knowing
1. Questions, not answers
2. Socrates (469–399 b.c.e.), Plato (429–348 b.c.e.), and Aristotle (384–322 b.c.e.)
3. Rational and non-religious analysis of the world
B. The Greek Legacy
1. Alexander the Great, Rome, and the Academy in Athens
2. The loss and recovery of Greece in Europe
3. Greek learning in the Islamic world
V. The Birth of Christianity… with Buddhist Comparisons
A. The Lives of the Founders
1. Encounter with a higher level of reality
2. Messages of love
3. Jesus’ miracles and dangerous social critique
B. The Spread of New Religions
1. New religions after their deaths
2. Paul (10–65 c.e.)
3. Lower social classes and women
4. Non-European Christianity
5. Christianity as a Roman religion
C. Institutions, Controversies, and Divisions
1. The exclusion of women from leadership
2. Debates over doctrine and texts
3. Council orthodoxy and expulsion
4. Roman and Greek cultural traditions
5. Diversity in the Buddhist world
VI. Reflections: Religions and Historians
A. Secular, evidence based history versus faith
B. Change of time in the faith?
C. Verifying the divine?
D. Schisms within the faiths