How The Classical Empires Contributed To The Spread Of Christianity And Buddhism

Compare and Contrast: The Spread of Christianity and Buddhism in the End of the Classical Period.

First the rise of Christianity start brought a new phase of history. The end of the ancient world which was the beginning of the Middle ages. Three religions emerged from the fall of the ancient world, these were Latin Christendom, Byzantium, and Islam. The Byzantium civilization was by far the most advanced out of the three civilizations economically and culturally speaking compared to the Latin west. This was during the time were very few westerners could read and write,

Two of the most widely practiced religions around the world today are Christianity and Buddhism. However, they did not start off with such a large following. Christianity, was a small cult that branched off of Judaism and was being strongly prosecuted against. Buddhism was just a single person trying to find a reason for and an end to the universal suffering that he had just newly encountered. Even though the following of Christianity and Buddhism had started off small, by developing their core beliefs as rejections of Judaism and Hinduism, they were able to better fascinate and convert others.

As Buddhism spread from India to China, It caused a variety of diverse beliefs. Several views on Buddhism were strongly influential to the Chinese society. For example the Emperor's opinion that Buddhism would leave ruin, havoc and destroy the country in Document 6 is a strong authoritative source in the Chinese society. This leaves the people of China to decide between listening to their Emperor, or violate the statement he made making the influence of Buddhism corrupt. A positive viewpoint from a philosopher in Document 5 compares Buddhism to other existing beliefs trying to get the religion accepted into society. While there are positive and negative views on Buddhism during the first century C.E. Some sources remained indifferent and have no opinion on the issue and want to meld all religions into a remarkable society. While some praised Buddhism and support all that it stands for, others used the spread of this religion as a scapegoat, incriminated for political and economic problems. Therefore the spread of Buddhism and how it was preserved was based on point of view and powerful opinions in China.

Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity are the main religions of the world. Christianity was accepted by the Roman empire, and became the main religion there. The Romans followed the beliefs of Catholicism. However, when the Germans attacked, they took over the west side of the Roman Empire. The

The Diffusion of Buddhism and Christianity in the Sixth Century During the sixth century, both Buddhism and Christianity were rapidly gaining in popularity throughout the world. However, they both diffused in different ways, and to different places. The similarities and the differences between the two religions’ diffusions are extremely important learning about the two religions. I believe the differences concerning where the two places diffused to greatly affected the number of converts for the two religions. Both Buddhism and Christianity relied heavily on missionaries to spread their respective teachings throughout the world.

The spread of religion first began through contact with neighbouring countries which gradually expand throughout the years. Buddhism and Islam are one of the most widespread religions across Southeast Asian countries like Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Trade merchants and imperial support of the religion were major factors in the facilitation and localization of the spread of Buddhism and Islam within Southeast Asia. However, there were also limitations presented which hindered the development of each religion in within their countries as introduction of newer religions and changes to political and imperial power would have affected the progression to become fully localised pre-1800s.

Man’s insatiable need for a higher power was quenched between the years of 1000 BCE and 1500 CE as many religions came out of the East. Some were given the chance to decide what religion suited them best; others had new systems of spirituality and worship forced upon them by conquering neighbors. Christianity should give credit to the trials and challenges of the Roman Empire for their widespread following. Some have implied that the circulation of Christianity had unequivocal accountability for the fall of the Empire, but it was more an indication of the imperfections of Roman Empire’s culture than the cause of its fall.

Some religions were also moved from region to region, where they were adopted and created power for the next civilizations.

After a long fought battle by Christians to belong Christianity flourished and spread throughout the Roman Empire. “Christianity, the core religion of the West, was born within the Roman Empire and was greatly influenced by Roman law and organization”(Perry 167). Whether or not Rome wanted Christianity it was there to stay. According to Spielvogel “Christianity fulfilled the human need to belong”(175). Christians formed a bond and communities where people could express their love by helping each other and assisting the needy. It made people feel more like the belonged in a way that just the Roman Empire could not do. The Roman Empire was way too big and impersonal that people needed an outlet and needed a way to feel like they were apart of something bigger than themselves. “The ideal of a single Christian society embracing many different nationalities, so dear to medieval thinkers, was superimposed on the model of the Roman Empire” (Perry 167). No matter what Christianity was spreading rapidly and the Romans were going to embrace this new religion and ended up building a successful empire around its ideals. Much like the Roman Empire the founders of the United States built this country off of Christian ideals.

Diffusion of Universalizing Religions Buddhism started in Nepal, Christianty started in Israel, and Islam started in Saudi Arabia.

Overall Christianity started to develop a hierarchy much like the great Roman Empire meanwhile Buddhism branched into two different types and spread into the rest of Asia. Nevertheless both of them spread all over Asia and Europe using merchants, monks, and missionaries but both were completely opposite when it came to hierarchy. Christianity believed in hierarchy a included in its structure but Buddhism didn’t and was created to stop the social disparity caused by the hierarchy and Hinduism. Another religion that was spread by trade using missionaries and merchants was Islam during the 7th century. Islam also used the basics of hierarchy where Allah was seen as the king/emperor and your good deeds are seen as your messiah or savior just like

Early civilizations and empires saw a rise of religion that attracted the people through special teachings

Religion is a fragment of an extensive list of human identities, it is part culture, part of a learned beliefs and values that held by individuals (Fouberg, 28). Religion is culturally gripping prevailing priorities (Fouberg, 205). Christianity has the largest diffusion for its cultural hearth of any of the major world religions (Fouberg, 209). Christianity follows the same cultural hearth as Judaism until the New Testament where Jesus Christ is introduced as the son of God (Fouberg, 217). Christianity split into two separate Christian sects in 1054 CE, one of them being the Roman Catholic Church (Fouberg, 217). As Fouberg states in Human Geography “Catholic theology teaches infallibility of the pope in interpreting Jesus’ teachings and in formulating ways

Everything has a beginning, and in the beginning there was the word and the word was with God. The Bible is the religious scripture for Christianity which is followed worldwide by 2,000 million people. Each religion has its roots but Christianity claims it is different. With over 2,000 million followers we will explore how Christianity came to be and the spread of such a widely followed religion today. In my paper I will be exploring the important roles in the spread of Christianity along with important figures and events in the religion as well.