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UNIT III WORLD RELIGIONS
Abrahamic Religions
(Judaism, Christianity and
Islam) and Eastern
Religions (Hinduism and
Buddhism)
Disclaimer
• We will study World Religions as required by
North Carolina Essential Standards.
• We will talk about Religions in their historical
context, basic beliefs and spread of those
Religions.
• We will treat all religions with respect (including
beliefs, writings, artifacts and institutions)
• We will explore commonality and differences in
World Religions.
NCSCOS/Common Core Objective:
WH.2 - Analyze ancient civilizations and
empires in terms of their development,
growth and lasting impact.
WH.2.5 - Analyze the development and
growth of major Eastern and Western
religions (e.g., including but not limited to
Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism,
Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and
Shintoism, etc.).
The Hebrews and Judaism
Main Idea
The ancient Hebrews and their religion, Judaism, have been a major
influence on Western civilization.
Objectives:
• Students will explore the major events in the history of the early
Hebrews.
• Students will survey how the Kingdom of Israel developed and who
were some of its key leaders.
• Students will discover the basic teachings and sacred
texts of Judaism.
• Students will examine the lasting impact of Judaism
on the world.
The Early Hebrews
The Hebrews were the ancestors of the Jews, and most of what we know,
including the laws and requirements of their religion, Judaism, comes from
their later writings.
Hebrew Fathers
Moses and Exodus
Promised Land
• The Torah
• Slaves in Egypt
• Israelites in desert
• Abraham, father of the
Hebrews
• Moses
• Canaan
• Pharaoh, plagues
• God’s covenant
• Exodus
• Land of “milk and
honey”
• 12 Tribes of Israel
• Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob were patriarchs
• Israelites in Egypt
– Israelites out of
Egypt
• Israelites battled for
land
– Passover
• Canaan = Israel
• The Ten
Commandments
The Ten Commandments
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in
heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou
shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous
God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me,
and keep my commandments.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him
guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work,
thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor
thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the
sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the
sabbath day, and hallowed it.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD
thy God giveth thee.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his
manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.
The Kingdom of Israel
The Period of the Judges
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Scattered communities
No central government
Judges enforce laws
Prophets keep Israelites focused on faith
Saul, David, Solomon
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Israelites united against Philistines
Saul, first Israelite king
Never won full support
David, second king
Strong king, gifted poet
Solomon, David’s son
Israel reached height of wealth
Division and Conquest
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Conflict after Solomon’s death
Two kingdoms, Israel and Judah
722 BC, Israel fell to Assyrians
586 BC, Judah fell to Chaldeans
Chaldeans enslaved Jews
Diaspora = scattering of Jews
Persians conquered Chaldeans
The Teachings of Judaism
Religion the foundation of Hebrew and Jewish societies
• Belief in One God
– Monotheism
• Justice and Righteousness
– Kindness, fairness, code of ethics
• Obedience to the Law
– Ten Commandments
– Mosaic Law
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How Jews pray and when they worship
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Limits what foods Jews may eat and how food is prepared (kosher)
• Jewish Sacred Texts
– Torah, Talmud
Judaism and Rome
Judaism in the Roman World
• 63 BC, Romans conquered Judaea,
chose new ruler for region, installed
him as king
Roman Compromise
• Jews had to pay tribute to Romans but
unwilling to abandon religion for
polytheistic religion of Romans
• Roman leaders allowed Jews to
practice religion as long as they paid
tribute, maintained civic order
Judaism in the Roman World
Reactions to Roman Rule
• Judaism had different branches, varying ideas on cooperation with Romans
• Zealots called on fellow Jews to drive Romans from Judaea, reestablish Kingdom of
Israel
Zealots
• Zealots formed pockets of resistance against Romans of Judaea
• After mass uprising AD 66–70, Romans sacked Jerusalem, killed thousands of Jews,
destroyed Second Temple
Messianic Prophecies
• After revolt in 130s, all Jews banned from Jerusalem
• Not all Jews willing to take up arms; others waited coming of Messiah— spiritual
leader prophesied to restore ancient kingdom, bring peace to world
The Rise of Christianity
Main Idea
A new religion called Christianity developed within the Roman Empire
and gradually spread throughout the Roman world.
Objectives:
• Students will explore how Christianity is rooted in the teachings of
Judaism
• Students will investigate the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
• Students will discover how Christianity spread
throughout the Roman world.
Jesus of Nazareth
Against this background, a spiritual leader named Jesus of Nazareth emerged,
teaching people to prepare for God’s Judgment Day.
Life
Preaching
• Nearly all knowledge of Jesus comes
from Gospels—first four books of
New Testament
• Jesus preached message of renewal
and warning
• New Testament and books of Hebrew
Bible make up today’s Christian Bible
• Created excitement by performing
miracles of healing; defending poor,
oppressed
• Jesus born in Bethlehem, near
Jerusalem
• Learned carpentry, studied writings of
Jewish prophets
• Gathered group of disciples
• Instructed people to repent of sins,
seek God’s forgiveness
• Must love God above all, love others
as much as self
Death and Resurrection
Jesus’s popularity, crowds alarmed authorities who feared
political uprisings
• Jesus arrested, tried, sentenced to death
• According to New Testament, after crucifixion
– Jesus rose from dead
– Spent 40 days teaching disciples
– Ascended into heaven
• Followers believed Resurrection, Ascension revealed Jesus as
the Messiah
The Spread of Christianity
After Jesus’s death, his disciples began teaching that all people could achieve
salvation—the forgiveness of sins and the promise of everlasting life.
Apostles
Paul of Tarsus
Conversion
• Jesus’s 12 disciples
worked to spread
message
• Paul, originally known
as Saul, born in Tarsus,
in Asia Minor
• Paul had conversion on
way to Damascus,
became Christian
• Earliest Christian
missionaries
• Had actively opposed
those teaching that
Jesus was the Messiah
• If not for his work,
Christianity might have
remained a branch of
Judaism
• Apostles traveled
widely, teaching mostly
in Jewish communities
Converting the Gentiles
• Paul believed God sent him to convert non-Jews, or Gentiles
• Paul helped make Christianity broader religion, attracted many new followers
• Helped establish Christian churches throughout eastern Mediterranean
• Paul’s epistles, or letters, to those churches later became part of the New Testament
Roman Christianity
• Paul found some Jewish customs hindered missionary work among non-Jews,
dispensed with those requirements for Christians
• Paul emphasized new doctrines that helped distinguish Christianity from Judaism
• Christianity spread; message of love, eternal life after death found appealing
• By AD 300, some 10 percent of Roman people were Christian
Persecution
Results
• As Christianity spread through Roman world, some local officials feared Christians
conspiring against them; arrested, killed many Christians
• Those killed seen by Christians as martyrs, people who die for their faith
Threat
• Christians persecuted at local level, but large-scale persecution rare during first two
centuries after Jesus’s life
• Large-scale persecution by Romans grew as rulers saw Christianity as threat
Imperial Approval
• Spread of Christianity hastened by conversion of emperor Constantine
• AD 313, Constantine made Christianity legal within empire, Edict of Milan
• By late 300s, polytheism gradually disappeared from empire
 Of the eleven remaining
apostles (Judas Iscariot
having killed himself), only
one—John the Apostle,
younger brother of the
Apostle James—died of
natural causes in exile.
 The other ten were
reportedly martyred by
various means including
beheading, by sword and
spear and, in the case of
Peter, crucifixion upside
down following the
execution of his wife.
The Crucifixion of St. Peter by Caravaggio
The persecutions of Christians culminated with Diocletian at the end of the third and
beginning of the 4th century. The Great Persecution is considered the largest. Beginning
with a series of four edicts banning Christian practices and ordering the imprisonment of
Christian clergy, the persecution intensified until all Christians in the empire were
commanded to sacrifice to the gods or face immediate execution. Over 20,000 Christians
are thought to have died during Diocletian's reign. However, as Diocletian zealously
persecuted Christians in the Eastern part of the empire, his co-emperors in the West did
not follow the edicts and so Christians in Gaul, Spain, and Britannia were virtually
unmolested.
The Christian Martyrs' L
ast Prayer, by Jean-Léon Gérôme
(1883
Council of Nicaea
• Called by Roman Emperor Constantine
• Wanted attain consensus in the church
through an assembly representing all
of Christendom.
• Decisions
1. Which Gospels will be included in
the New Testament
2. The development of Christian
belief
3. Nicene Creed
4. The date of Easter
The Early Christian Church
Communities
• Earliest Christian churches not only
spiritual organizations but close-knit
communities
• Provided all kinds of support for
members
Deepening Faith
Complex
• Support included burial services, food,
shelter
• Christianity grew; organization became
more complex
Ceremonies
• Ceremonies developed to inspire
people’s faith, make them feel closer
to Jesus
• During Eucharist, people eat bread,
drink wine in memory of Jesus’s death,
resurrection
• One ceremony was Eucharist
• With baptism, people are admitted to
the faith
Expansion of the Church
By about 100, priests who were trained in these ceremonies became prominent within
Christianity. The authority of the priests was based on the authority Jesus gave the
Apostles. This spiritual authority distinguished the priests from the general
congregation of the church.
Administrative Structure
• Church expanded, developed
administrative structure
• Bishop oversaw church affairs, had
authority over other priests
• 300s, heads of oldest congregations,
patriarchs, had authority over other
bishops
Peter the Apostle
• Many believed Peter founded Roman
Church, was first bishop
• Later bishops of Rome, popes, Peter’s
spiritual heirs
• Gospel of Matthew: Jesus gives Peter
keys to kingdom of heaven
• Therefore future popes inherit keys
Patriarchs did not recognize the popes’ supremacy claims at first, but over time popes
gained more influence within the Christian Church.
Religious Conflicts
In the 700s the use of art in churches deeply divided society. This religious controversy
threatened the strength of both church and state. The controversy involved the use of
icons—paintings or sculptures of sacred figures.
Icons and Controversy
• Churches contained beautiful icons
• Some Christians objected to their
presence, believed use too close to
non-Christian worship of idols
• People called iconoclasts, “icon
breaker”
Iconoclast Movement
• 726, Emperor Leo III forbade use of
icons, ordered destruction
• Iconoclast movement unpopular with
many in church hierarchy
• Since few could read, clergy found
sacred images useful for teaching
Reaction against iconoclasm raged on and off until 843 when a council settled the
issue by accepting icons. The dispute played a crucial role in the growing divide
between the emperor in Constantinople and the pope in Rome.
The Church Splits
Growing Divisions
• Over time, number of issues that divided eastern, western churches grew
• Use of Greek one difference; theological differences also emerged
• Eastern church allowed clergy to marry, western church did not
Church Governance
• Pope in Rome, patriarchs in Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem were
church leaders; emperor oversaw church law, did not govern church
• Byzantines did not accept pope as supreme authority over religious issues
Schism
• 1054, differences became so large, schism, split, occurred between churches
• Church in east became Orthodox Church, west remained Roman Catholic
• Later hurt Byzantine Empire, could not rely on western help against invaders
Christian Empires (East versus West)
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Byzantine Empire
Was the Eastern Roman Empire
• Capital in Constantinople
• Greatest Emperor Justinian I (527ce to 565ce)
• Achievements
• Wanted to reclaim all of Roman Empire
• Military Campaign stopped by the plague
• Most important new building, church, Hagia Sophia,
“Holy Wisdom”
• Spectacular blend of domes, arches; building
still stands
• Justinian’s Code
• Justinian set up commission that codified,
systematically arranged, empire’s existing
laws, legal opinions into clear system
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2/Byzantine_Empire_animated2.gif
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Holy Roman Empire
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When Rome fell in late 400s, Christianity mostly confined to
southern Europe
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By about 600, Christianity had spread
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northward into other parts of continent
Conversion of Anglo-Saxons, Franks helped
make western Europe into largely Christian
society
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Charles “the Hammer” Martel
saved Christianity in Europe by
stopping Muslim Invasion at the
Battle of Tours (732ce)
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Grandson Charlemagne will
become Holy Roman Emperor.
Following fall of Rome, Christianity appealed to
many Europeans
Period known as Middle Ages, or medieval
times
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Many people’s lives filled with doubt,
suffering hardship
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Christianity offered comfort, promise
of happy afterlife, sense of community