Transcript Ancient History

Pangea, et al
Until about 80,000 BC
DNA Map – Patterns to 80,000 BC
C
B
A
80,000 BC
50,000-40,000 BC
6500 BC
2500 BC
Ancient Wisdom
Creation & flood stories
in all ancient relgions
Mesopotamian (3500 BC), African
(3200 BC), Chinese (2100 BC),
Hebrew (2000) & Indian (1600
BC) animism
Egyptian other-world beliefs/monotheism
(1700 BC)
North Africa and Mesopotamia
About 8,000BC
Villages of 30300 all over the
world: tools,
language, faith,
rituals, stories
By 4000
Sailboats,
Calendars,
Mining
Money
By 5000 add pottery,
sculpture, architecture.
world population 40 million
Villages
grow to
2000-5000,
now small
cities
Summer, Akaad, Egypt,
India, Persia and China
The first civilizations (life in cities) around 3700 add:
Urbanization
Government, taxes
Intervillage trade
Armies, war
Education
Institutionalized Religion
Writing, Libraries
Social Order
World Religions
4.8 out
of 7.2
billion
people
Historical Order of Higher Religions
Egyptian – 2400 BC polytheism (occasional monotheism)
Hebrew – 2000 BC
monotheism
Hindu – 1200 BC (original monotheism; then polytheism)
Buddhism – 600 BC (various positions re God)
Confucian – 500 BC (no position re God)
Shinto – 500 BC (polytheism)
Christianity – 32 AD (monotheism)
Islam – 622 AD (monotheism)
Foundation of Western Faiths
Abraham 2160BC
From Ur of the Chaldees across the
Fertile Crescent to Palestine
Jews, Christians, Muslims all
consider themselves children of
Abraham
Higher civilizations golden age:
Israel (940) and Greece (420)
The Hebrew Thinker
Solomon (970-940 – king, poet, philosopher): the
goal of life is wisdom (practical success) and it is
attained by spiritual insight to life and obedience
to God
Proverbs
Song of Solomon
Ecclesiastes
The Hebrew Writers
Isaiah (700s – statesman, prophet, poet): God has
a plan which is being worked out in all nations and
all history to restore humanity to himself through
his Messiah.
Isaiah, Joel, Amos, Micah, Hosea, Jonah
Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Obadiah, Nahum, Habakkuk
Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
The Hebrew Prophets
Ezekiel (500s –Babylon):
God is able to lift up and tear
down nations, based on
personal and social morality.
All nations are in his hands.
He will restore Israel.
Daniel (500s – interpreter, administrator):
the purpose of life is using your gifts to do
good to everyone and also obeying the word
of God and the spirit of God.
Greece: The Presocratics
Predate Socrates (469-399 B.C.)
Rejected mythologies
Emphasized reason and monotheism
Scientific & philosophical questions
Most important: Thales, Parminides, Hereclitus
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
God used the forms of truth (his ideas) to unite energy
into matter and give it specific shape and purpose
The goal of life is wisdom. By reason and innate
ideas we can discover the truth and purpose of
things and rule ourselves.
Ideal-the philosopher-king
Israel and Greece
Monotheism
State & Religion separate
Morality & Religion
Philosophy of History
Sense of Destiny
Hinduism
Original monotheism (Brahma) about
1100BC which is manifested as three forces:
Preserver and protector
Creator and guide
Destroyer and restorer
900 BC seen as three gods: Bramah, Vishnu, Shiva
These gods manifest themselves on earth by an
avatar (incarnation). There have been hundreds of
incarnations as local gods or demi-gods.
Hinduism
Teaching Today: The atman (soul) is linked with
brahman (eternal being) but is now caught in
rebirth into suffering. The way to escape (msksha)
the cycle of suffering is to achieve realization that
atman is brahman and nothing else is important.
Major writings are the four Vedas, and the
commentaries called the Upanishads
Life is a cycle of birth, marriage,
death, rebirth – a cycle of suffering
punctuated with festivals
Ancient Values
Value of polytheism Value of monotheism
Value of the
individual
Value of the
collective
Rome
The Republic
The Empire
Building a total package around the
value of the collective, esp. the nobility
Roman Empire
Challenges to Rome from three sources
Huns (Germans) in the north-east
older form of pre-civilized culture, pagan, tribal, warlike
Celts (French, English, Irish) in the north-west
older form of pre-civilized culture, pagan, tribal, traders
Christians (messianic Jews) from the east
new form of culture: monotheistic, moral, peaceful,
open to all cultures, integrative, value of the individual