1. Introduction to Religion
January 18, 2013
Review of Wednesday

2. Activities of Ancients
Hunting & Gathering
Farming (Agriculture)
Male & Female
Calendar/Seasons
More Leisure
“Civilization”
Writing (Scribal Tradition)
For Posterity
~3,200 BCE in Mesopotamia
~2,200 BCE in Indus Valley
~ 600 BCE in MesoAmerica
Orality
Generation to Generation
Face to Face

3. Critical Theory Says What?
Hegemony
Artificial
Social Constructs
That Dominate Diverse Cultures

4. So-Called Civilization

5. Enuma Elish & Gilgamesh Stories Discovered in Library Ruins of Assyrian King, Ashurbanipal ~629 BCE Hebrew Scriptures Include Genesis, Accounts of Creation and Flood, which seem to be in dialogue with both Assyria’s and Babylon’s religious myths & symbols. ____________________________ Genesis & Other Texts Compiled After Return from Exile in Babylon

6. Ancient Egypt
3100 BCE to
30 BCE

7. Egyptian Rise & Rule Individual City States: ~3000 BCE
Old Kingdom: BCE
Middle Kingdom: BCE
New Kingdom: BCE
Egypt Occupied: ~1200 BCE

8. Polytheism

9. Imposition of Monotheism
Pharoah Amenophis IV
BCE
Aten, the Sun God

10. Socially & Societally What May Be The Effect of Transitions From Polytheism to Monotheism and... Back Again?

11. Life & Death Near The Nile
Nile River Goddess

12. The
Book of the Dead

13. Notions of After-Life Mummification/Embalming Process... Why?
First Associated with Pharaohs and Priest-Kings
Relationship Between Body & Spirit
“The Opening of the Mouth” Ceremony

14. Body & Spirit Body Is A Vehicle or Container for Spirit
Body Is A Seed of the Spirit
Body Is Forerunner of the Spirit
Body Is Immortal and Will Be Restored, Resuscitated or Resurrected
Body Is Waste. Spirit Is Eternal

15. GODS to HEROES to PHILOSOPHERS
Ancient Greece
GODS to HEROES to PHILOSOPHERS

16. The Temples Give Way
Become The Backdrop To Religious Conversation

17. Philosophy’s Impact On Religion
Socrates: “Know yourself...”
Plato: “Is what is holy holy because the gods approve it, or do they approve it because it is holy?”
Aristotle: “The unmoved mover...”
How might statements like these have influenced “religious practice” and “religious thinking”?

18. Ancient Rome
The communal religion was related to the basic agricultural economy, and so was dependent upon the Etruscans and others, for Rome developed too late to foster more than the mythology of her own creation. This religion was primarily that of the state, with the city personified as the chief deity. The Romans were aware of the need to accept some foreign gods, especially Greek, into their state-cult, and they modified these deities to fit their functional need (p. 84).

19. Saturnalia Ancient Festival In Honor of Saturn, held from December 17 thru 25
Any Thoughts?

20. To exist as a human being is to be a body-in-the-world, and having a body is the vehicle for being in the world, and having a body is to be interactively involved with a definite environment... ~J. Wentzel Van Huyssteen

21. “In that nanosecond of enlightenment I knew that the human spirit survives the death of the physical body and I understood that my wandering soul needed to get back into its earthly habitat.” ~ Janet Bettag

22. For Wednesday Read Partridge, pp. 89--99
2-Page Paper is Due on January 23
Your Response to the Question: Are Human Beings Inherently Religious?