World Religions continued C Factor 3 Religion as a personal or commercial tool 1 Malacca converts to Islam continued from previous lecture The state of Malacca converts to Islam which makes it more appealing to Islamic merchants As a result the state of Malacca becomes wealthy and can build better armies and weapons Other states begin to compete with Malacca and convert to Islam in order to generate greater commercial revenue 2 Baptism of Clovis 476 AD Clovis the ruler of the Germanic tribe called the Franks takes over Rome which is now named Problem Clovis has no source of political legitimacy He needs a way to explain why he s in Francia charge Choices 1 Aryanism this is the most popular religion among his peoples 2 Catholicism a slightly less popular religion He chooses Catholicism Why Because he ll have the Pope Bishop of Rome to back him up This is the same as God backing him up because priests were seen as the mouthpiece of God Existing Religions VS New Religions As new religions spread they come into contact with local religions Because of this we see 1 The gradual replacement of polytheism 2 Compromise values of old religion become embedded in new religion 3 Syncretism formula is A B AB A is the existing religion and B is the new religion This represents the blending of cultures to make something new that is composed of both cultures A Example Dia de los muertos day of the dead this is the celebration of dead loved ones which is an animistic religion This Aztec festival was seen by the Spanish as pagan so they tried to get rid of it However it was too ingrained into Aztec society To fix this the Spanish allowed the Aztecs to honor their dead loved ones as long as they also honored the dead Saints This is where All Saints Day comes from B Example Stupa also animistic this practice honored the burial mound called a Stupa of a deceased chieftain The people would visit this mound and as for blessings guidance Buddhism absorbed this idea but instead of honoring chieftains they honor deceased Buddhist monks C Example Christmas Saturnalia Saturnalia took part because of the winter solstice Dec 21st which is the shortest day of the year The winter solstice marks the point where the world would begin to make its way to rebirth spring which is why they would celebrate with a green tree In order to make this religious practice acceptable to Christians they made the focus of this practice centered on Jesus Many qualities of Christmas come from the original holiday of Saturnalia Spread of Buddhism Decline of India Buddhism is more popular in East Asia than it is in its birthplace India Why Buddhists detach themselves from things that bring suffering like having a relationship with God Denying attachment to God sounds like atheism to the people which they don t like Solution Hindus say that Buddha was one of the 10 incarnations of the god Vishnu This idea makes Buddhism and Hinduism seem very similar Chinese Chan Many Chinese people did not like Buddhism because they believed in the Confucian principle that relationships are central to harmony Monasticism challenged this belief because it took young men out of society in order for them to become monks This took young men out of their crucial place in society Buddhism accommodated this by saying that the family s sons would be generating a lot of Karma by becoming monks which would benefit the whole family One son in a monastery generates 10 generations of salvation In Japan Buddhism becomes Zen Buddhism As religions move into new societies they adapt This makes the adapted religion slightly different from the original Example South East Asian Buddhism is different than Chinese Buddhism Spread of Christianity Christianity could have existed without Jesus but not without Paul Why He spread Christianity around the Mediterranean Why was he so successful Because Paul was a Jew from Tarsus Paul s Advantages 1 He was a Roman citizen this helped because he had credibility since he came from a powerful family Also he could not be thrown in jail without a trial because of his rights as a Roman citizen 2 Language the other apostles were Jewish so they did not speak Greek Paul spoke Greek due to education provided by his family He knew how to present Christianity to the Greeks in ways that they could understand 3 Infrastructure Roads this is why Christianity was able to spread quickly Paul was able to travel with merchants and spread his religion Constantine Edict of Milan 313 AD Constantine was the ruler of Rome when it was divided He needs to justify his place a ruler so he claims to have seen a sign in the stars when he looked up before battle that he took as a sign from God that he would win the battle and become ruler Edict of Milan law saying that Christianity is a protected legitimate religion This offers Christians protection under the law There is no single head of the church Instead there are 5 Bishop Bricks Christian Europe 1 Rome 2 Constantinople 3 4 Antiole 5 Alexandria Jerusalem Brick numbers 3 4 and 5 fell to the spread of Islam 11th century Great Schism East and West Christianity Split Pope and Patriarch became so upset with each other that they separated The Bishop of Rome became the head of Roman Catholicism Led to Presbyterian Lutheran etc The Bishop of Constantinople took charge of the Eastern Orthodox Led to Greek Orthodox Lithuanian Orthodox etc Religion Transforms Society Art Philosophies Science Religion sets up parameters that influence how these parts of society are expressed Example of Art Have you ever seen a picture of the prophet Mohammed No In Islamic religion it is blasphemous to have a picture of Allah or Mohammed Example of Science Galileo determined that the sun was the center of the universe not the Earth Why did the church dislike this It contradicted biblical stories that some interpreted to say that the sun revolved around the Earth Law Islam influenced laws in society for women Religion transforms the role of government to be discussed in next lecture