The Role of Religion in Ancient Civilizations

The Role of Religion in Ancient Civilizations PDF Author: Kim Woodring
Publisher: Cognella Academic Publishing
ISBN: 9781516580712
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The Role of Religion in Ancient Civilizations: Select Readings addresses the importance of religion in ancient civilizations and encourages readers to evaluate these civilizations both historically and critically. The selected readings help readers understand civilizations as whole systems with not only social and political characteristics, but also religious ones. Topics include the establishment of patriarchal civilizations, Mesopotamian and Egyptian religion, and the early civilizations of Northwest India. Students also learn about the religions of ancient China and Japan, traditional African religions and belief systems, religion and burial in Roman Britain, and the great temples of Meso-American religions. The final selections are devoted to early Christianity, the Byzantine Empire, and Islam. The second edition features updated material and new articles that address Egyptian religion, early northwest civilizations, goddesses and demonesses in South Asian religion, Christianity during the Roman Empire, and the rise and expansion of Islam. Taken as a whole, these carefully curated articles demonstrate both the uniqueness of each religion and the traditions and practices that, over time, became interconnected and fused to form new religions. The Role of Religion in Ancient Civilizations is well suited to survey courses in world and ancient religions, as well as classes on religious history and the history of the ancient world.

The Role of Religion in Ancient Civilizations

The Role of Religion in Ancient Civilizations PDF Author: Kim Woodring
Publisher: Cognella Academic Publishing
ISBN: 9781516580712
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book

Book Description
The Role of Religion in Ancient Civilizations: Select Readings addresses the importance of religion in ancient civilizations and encourages readers to evaluate these civilizations both historically and critically. The selected readings help readers understand civilizations as whole systems with not only social and political characteristics, but also religious ones. Topics include the establishment of patriarchal civilizations, Mesopotamian and Egyptian religion, and the early civilizations of Northwest India. Students also learn about the religions of ancient China and Japan, traditional African religions and belief systems, religion and burial in Roman Britain, and the great temples of Meso-American religions. The final selections are devoted to early Christianity, the Byzantine Empire, and Islam. The second edition features updated material and new articles that address Egyptian religion, early northwest civilizations, goddesses and demonesses in South Asian religion, Christianity during the Roman Empire, and the rise and expansion of Islam. Taken as a whole, these carefully curated articles demonstrate both the uniqueness of each religion and the traditions and practices that, over time, became interconnected and fused to form new religions. The Role of Religion in Ancient Civilizations is well suited to survey courses in world and ancient religions, as well as classes on religious history and the history of the ancient world.

Religion in early societies

Religion in early societies PDF Author: Christopher Knapp
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3656391033
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 8

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Book Description
Essay from the year 2000 in the subject Ethnology / Cultural Anthropology, , course: Archäologie und Ethnologie, language: English, abstract: A rather comprehensive essay regarding the importance of religion as focal point of ethnicity and, with it, social identity. Four distinct societies are ́examined ́: Roman, Maya, Aztec, and ancient Egypt. Author has some M.A.-level prior knowledge, the essay is quite comprehensive and quite well researched (according to the feedback recieved).

Introduction to World History

Introduction to World History PDF Author: Kim Woodring
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781516555871
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
The Role of Religion in Ancient Civilizations: Select Readings addresses the importance of religion in ancient civilizations and encourages readers to evaluate these civilizations both historically and critically. The selected readings help readers understand civilizations as whole systems with not only social and political characteristics, but also religious ones. Topics include the establishment of patriarchal civilizations, Mesopotamian and Egyptian religion, and the early civilizations of Northwest India. Students also learn about the religions of ancient China and Japan, traditional African religions and belief systems, religion and burial in Roman Britain, and the great temples of Meso-American religions. The final selections are devoted to early Christianity, the Byzantine Empire, and Islam. Original introductions place the readings in context. Taken as a whole, these carefully curated articles demonstrate both the uniqueness of each religion and the traditions and practices that, over time, became interconnected and sometimes even fused to form new religions. The Role of Religion in Ancient Civilizations is well-suited to survey courses in world and ancient religions, as well as classes on religious history and the history of the ancient world.

Battling the Gods

Battling the Gods PDF Author: Tim Whitmarsh
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307958337
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
How new is atheism? Although adherents and opponents alike today present it as an invention of the European Enlightenment, when the forces of science and secularism broadly challenged those of faith, disbelief in the gods, in fact, originated in a far more remote past. In Battling the Gods, Tim Whitmarsh journeys into the ancient Mediterranean, a world almost unimaginably different from our own, to recover the stories and voices of those who first refused the divinities. Homer’s epic poems of human striving, journeying, and passion were ancient Greece’s only “sacred texts,” but no ancient Greek thought twice about questioning or mocking his stories of the gods. Priests were functionaries rather than sources of moral or cosmological wisdom. The absence of centralized religious authority made for an extraordinary variety of perspectives on sacred matters, from the devotional to the atheos, or “godless.” Whitmarsh explores this kaleidoscopic range of ideas about the gods, focusing on the colorful individuals who challenged their existence. Among these were some of the greatest ancient poets and philosophers and writers, as well as the less well known: Diagoras of Melos, perhaps the first self-professed atheist; Democritus, the first materialist; Socrates, executed for rejecting the gods of the Athenian state; Epicurus and his followers, who thought gods could not intervene in human affairs; the brilliantly mischievous satirist Lucian of Samosata. Before the revolutions of late antiquity, which saw the scriptural religions of Christianity and Islam enforced by imperial might, there were few constraints on belief. Everything changed, however, in the millennium between the appearance of the Homeric poems and Christianity’s establishment as Rome’s state religion in the fourth century AD. As successive Greco-Roman empires grew in size and complexity, and power was increasingly concentrated in central capitals, states sought to impose collective religious adherence, first to cults devoted to individual rulers, and ultimately to monotheism. In this new world, there was no room for outright disbelief: the label “atheist” was used now to demonize anyone who merely disagreed with the orthodoxy—and so it would remain for centuries. As the twenty-first century shapes up into a time of mass information, but also, paradoxically, of collective amnesia concerning the tangled histories of religions, Whitmarsh provides a bracing antidote to our assumptions about the roots of freethinking. By shining a light on atheism’s first thousand years, Battling the Gods offers a timely reminder that nonbelief has a wealth of tradition of its own, and, indeed, its own heroes.

The Religion and Beliefs of Ancient India

The Religion and Beliefs of Ancient India PDF Author: Susan Henneberg
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
ISBN: 1477789413
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 50

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Book Description
India is home to the world’s oldest religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as Jainism. All three evolved from shared beliefs and traditions, such as reincarnation, karma, and liberation and achieving nirvana. These beliefs and traditions evolved in the Indus River Valley around 3500 BCE. This volume explores the religions of ancient India, including rituals practiced and deities worshipped, to provide students with an understanding of the beliefs of the peoples of ancient India. With engaging text, rich and colorful illustrations, and an enhanced e-book option, this title is a valuable resource for reports.

Religions of the Ancient World

Religions of the Ancient World PDF Author: Sarah Iles Johnston
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674015173
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 750

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Book Description
This groundbreaking, first basic reference work on ancient religious beliefs collects and organizes available information on ten ancient cultures and traditions, including Greece, Rome, and Mesopotamia, and offers an expansive, comparative perspective on each one.

ROLE OF RELIGION IN ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS

ROLE OF RELIGION IN ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS PDF Author: Kim Woodring
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781793525918
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
The Role of Religion in Ancient Civilizations: Select Readings addresses the importance of religion in ancient civilizations and encourages readers to evaluate these civilizations both historically and critically.

Ancient Religions

Ancient Religions PDF Author: Sarah Iles JOHNSTON
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674039181
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
Religious beliefs and practices, which permeated all aspects of life in antiquity, traveled well-worn routes throughout the Mediterranean: itinerant charismatic practitioners peddled their skills as healers, purifiers, cursers, and initiators; and vessels decorated with illustrations of myths traveled with them. This collection of essays, drawn from the groundbreaking reference work Religion in the Ancient World, offers an expansive, comparative perspective on this complex spiritual world.

Ritual, Play, and Belief in Evolution and Early Human Societies

Ritual, Play, and Belief in Evolution and Early Human Societies PDF Author: Colin Renfrew
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110714356X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
This book presents unique new insights into the development of human ritual and society through our heritage of play and performance.

The Idea of God in Early Religions

The Idea of God in Early Religions PDF Author: F B Jevons
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781835917190
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"The Idea of God in Early Religions" by F. B. Jevons is a significant work that explores the concept of divinity across various ancient civilizations and religious traditions. Published in 1910, this book examines the development of religious thought and the evolution of beliefs about the divine in the early stages of human civilization. F. B. Jevons, a British classicist and theologian, presents a comparative study of religious ideas and practices from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, Greece, and other cultures. He traces the origins of religious consciousness and investigates how different societies conceptualized and worshiped their gods. One of the central themes of the book is the exploration of the human impulse to seek meaning and transcendence through religious experience. Jevons examines the ways in which early humans interpreted natural phenomena, such as the cycles of the sun and the changing seasons, and attributed divine significance to them. Moreover, Jevons analyzes the diversity of religious beliefs and practices, highlighting common themes and motifs that emerge across cultures. He discusses the roles of priests, rituals, myths, and sacred texts in shaping religious worldviews and fostering communal identity. Another key aspect of "The Idea of God in Early Religions" is its investigation into the development of monotheism from polytheistic and henotheistic roots. Jevons explores the emergence of monotheistic concepts in ancient Egypt, Israel, and other civilizations, tracing the evolution of the idea of a single, supreme deity. Jevons' book provides valuable insights into the early stages of religious thought and the formation of the idea of God in human history. It offers a scholarly examination of the richness and diversity of religious beliefs and practices in ancient societies, contributing to our understanding of the origins of religious consciousness.