Appreciating Key Events

This paper deals with ways history can be interpreted and influences different interpretations have on society and individuals. This is explored through

Given illustrates the internal factors for example Christianity being “overly ambitious.” /77 gruman/ The majority of the work is focused on political policies that contributed and how “ decline had began with the rise of Christianity.” /209 jones/

Searching back to its beginnings, religion has a profound impact on cultural identity through the presence of deep and ancient roots that connect a people to their glorious, memorable and often idealized histories. By equating a given religion with the success of a society often times national pride and religious pride become intertwined. Though this manifests itself differently in each country, throughout all four surveyed this attribute seemed to be present.

American author Christopher Hitchens once wrote, “Religion is part of the human make-up. It's also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature, the texts, our first attempt at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at philosophy.” I enjoy this quote because it acknowledges a key aspect of the human condition: our overwhelming desire to know and understand our place in the world. Religion, in turn, is our attempt at that, a construction of what we believe to be the relationship between us, our surroundings, and beyond. For two cultures, religion played an important role in everyday society: the Aztec Empire in Mesoamerica and the Islamic empires of West Africa. Now, I am going to compare and contrast West African and

Christian envisioned the periodization of world history like a puzzle and the pieces of the puzzle were the theoretical, organizational, ethical, and technical problems of the periodization. Christian was able to solve the problems of the periodization of world history, since his “organizational aspects of all periodization systems moderately well in its first and third eras” (104). This is valid since the author arranges the book in chronological order by providing the reader with a list of main events in a chart (Era of Foragers- page 2, The Agrarian Era- page 26, The Modern Era- page 59) which allows the reader to know understand the sequences of each era. Also, he provides the readers a glimpse of the main ideas to help the readers understand a specific time period. To illustrate, “Explaining the Modern Revolution” on pages 64-67 “explains why rates of innovation have risen so fast during the modern era” which includes Accumulated Changes of the Agrarian Era, Rise of Commercial Societies, and Development of a Single Global Network. As mentioned on page 98, periodization problems appear because world historians have difficulty choosing what are the important

D2.His.1.9-12 Evaluate how historical events and developments were shaped by unique circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts.

This work investigates the implications of theories of global change for the study of religion generally and, through a series of case studies, applications of those theories to specific religious movements. In particular, Beyer is interested in the seeming contradiction of the persistence of conflict between social units within a globalizing world that is more and more becoming a "single place." The first half of his book, the introduction and four chapters, is taken up with theoretical definitions of religion as a social system and the position of that social system with regard to other systems. The second half of the book, five chapters, explores applications of Beyer’s theorizing to a wide range of world religious particularities.

Two thousand four hundred and forty-five years ago, a man stands up. The air is thick with tension as the whole crowd watches. The whole year was spent at war, and now many citizens lay on the ground, with faces of terror. It is tradition to do this; tradition to stand up after a year of war to speak about the dead, and has been established for many years. Seven hundred and forty-three years later, a man is sleeping. Tomorrow is another long day of war. Then, he sees something else. A cross with the top of its head bent round. He stares in awe at the sign, then begins to think about it. This all happened a long time ago. Today, the two people mentioned are remembered as two great leaders that lived before, in the ancient world. Throughout history, they changed the lives of many, and affected many others during their rule.

Founding moments in history, cleansed of the strife, the conflict and the power gambits that gave rise to them, serve as powerful myths. Homogenized, cleansed, erased of earthly ties, they stand as shining letters of scripture and perfected reality, a point we must look back at and simultaneously try to re-attain. It is a sort of idealization of a particular historical trend that gained power at a point, and a projection of it from the plane of the real to the mythic or ideal. Time becomes a corpus that is sacrificed and partaken of by the mass of the future as a means to further existence and cultural legitimacy/rejuvenation. The Other claims the Real, a point in polarity with the Myth, joined in the physical(powered by the temporal) by Jouissance.

On occasion, authors approach cultural subjects as historians. However, Huston Smith limits the historical facts to stay focus on the values of the religions (Smith 10,12). Having an history filled book can cause readers to lose interests in his discussion. To keep the numbers down, Smith picks the religions that most people acknowledge and would share the most common themes in their life (11). He is passionate about his studies, and he wants the audience to find their own appreciation for religion. To accomplish this, Smith simply states that,”This is a book about values”(12). Some books describe a certain faith’s good and bad qualities and can sometimes put more emphasis on the bad if the

Finally, the third section will dwell on the controversial topic of faith, and human’s need for belief. Religion has done an excellent job in manipulating human’s need for trust. Therefore, the combination of these three sections should compel the reader to better understand why such a false belief, such as religion has had such success throughout history.

The history of religion continues to play an important role in defining why certain aspects of religion are the way they are today. Understanding religion’s history can also help one appreciate the importance, value, and determination that certain individuals went through in order for that particular religion to gain freedom and acceptance in society. Throughout history, Christianity has shown exactly this. By learning about its history, one can gain an understanding of how it emerged into being one of the most popular religions in the world. Furthermore, better understanding of the religion, both historically and contemporarily, can help dispel any negative preconceived notions about Christianity.

As a student of religion I have learnt that religion is an indispensable part of human life. History shows that every religion, it may be revealed or not, has risen in the crucial moment of the human history. According to the Semitic tradition human history has began with Adam and Eve, first prophet in Abrahamic tradition. In Indian tradition, though God is omnipresent but he directly intervened into this world, what we called Avatara, to make a clear distinction between right and wrong. In primitive society also people’s lives were highly motivated with religious affiliation.

For the layman, familiarity with the major religions stems from the stories that are associated with them. Using the narratives that are derived from the sacred texts is the most prominent way in which our society identifies the Western religions. The Jewish tradition is best correlated to stories like the Exodus and the parting of the Red Seas, for example, as are the many tales of the miracles of Jesus connected to Christianity. This essay will present narratives as an easy method of providing the basic groundwork for the Western religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam because of their simplicity and easily transmittable nature.

The accounts of the actions by the 'enemies of true religion' throughout the ten year period of