World Religions and World History

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THE RISE OF WORLD RELIGIONS
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Major Religions in Order of Appearance
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• Certain Conditions in Afroeurasia in the second
  millennium B.C.E. and first millennium C.E. may
  have favored larger-scale spiritual and moral
  belief systems
• Significant rise in world population
• World population 1,000 B.C.E. 120,000,000
• World population 1 C.E. 250,000,000
• World population today 6,000,000,000
• More and bigger cities in Afroeurasia
• Cities with population exceeding 30,000, 1200
  B.C.E. 16 cities
• Cities with population exceeding 30,000 in 100
  C.E.
• 75 cities

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Certain Conditions in Afroeurasia in the second
millennium B.C.E. and first millennium C.E. may
have favored larger-scale spiritual and moral
belief systems

• Larger states and empires
• Improving systems of communications
  by land and sea
• More extensive commercial and cultural exchange

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The three biggest empires of the 1000 B.C.E. to
500 C.E. period. Their land area is compared to
that of the continental United States.1  
 
 
These states were empires not only because they
were big but also because a single government,
and an elite class of particular origin (Han
Chinese, Indo-Iranian-speaking Persians,
Latin-speaking Romans), ruled over peoples of
diverse linguistic, ethnic, and religious
identities. 1
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Empires and Trade Routes of the First Century
C.E.
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Question Why did large, regional belief systems
emerge after about 500 BCE?
theory

• Large-scale belief systems were a response to
  increasing interaction among peoples across
  cultural and linguistic borders.
• Both long-distance trade and bigger states
  benefited from the development of shared beliefs,
  values, and codes of behavior among large groups
  of people.

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What unites co-believers then and now?

• Communal acts of worship
• Faith in salvation or a better future
• A shared system of ethics and moral behavior
• A common search for God, peace, or moral
  certainty
• A system of laws
• Social institutions of mutual support
• Social etiquette and manners

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The Major Religions

• Religions of salvation
• Judaism
• Buddhism
• Christianity
• Islam
• Hinduism

• Monotheistic religions
• Judaism
• Christianity
• Islam

• Belief system focused mainly on Moral and Ethical
  Behavior in family and public life
• Confucianism (5th c. BCE)

• Belief systems emphasizing search for unity with
  God or transcendent experience
• Buddhism
• Christianity
• Hinduism
• Islam
• Judaism
• Daoism

There are many other religions associated with
particular ethnic groups and local populations.
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The spread of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity
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Comparing Buddhism and Christianity

• Buddhism
• Prophet and Teacher Siddartha Gautama, the
  Buddha (563-483 BCE)

• Christianity
• Prophet and Teacher Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus
  Christ (4 BCE-early 30s CE)

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Similarities between Buddhism and Christianity
Salvationist (state of harmony) Nirvana freedom
from Unity with all selfish desire and from God
in the cycle of rebirth Heaven
Universalist For all humankind
Spread far beyond land of birth
Grew in times of political turmoil and social
disruption
Declined in land of birth
Monastic tradition
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World religions, like languages, have always
changed and divided over time.
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