WORLD HISTORY –RELIGION ORIGIN CHARACTERISTICS

– WORLD HISTORY – RELIGION ORIGIN CHARACTERISTICS Hinduism India in 1500 B.C. Hinduism has no single founder; it developed over a period of 4,000 years. One of its main features is a caste system, in which people are born into a prescribed class and follow the ways of that class. They are polytheistic. It was founded by Siddhartha Gautama, called the Buddha. Buddhists believe in a cycle of rebirth. The ultimate goal of the Buddhist path is to achieve nirvana, an enlightened state free from suffering.

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WORLD HISTORY –RELIGION ORIGIN CHARACTERISTICS – WORLD HISTORY – R ELIGION ORIGIN CHARACTERISTICS ■ Hinduism India in 1500 B.C. Hinduism has no single founder; it developed over a period of 4,000 years. ■ One of its main features is a caste system, in which people are born into a prescribed class and follow the ways of that class. ■ They are polytheistic. ■ Buddhism India in 525 B.C. It was founded by Siddhartha Gautama, called the Buddha. ■ Buddhists believe in a cycle of rebirth. ■ The ultimate goal of the Buddhist path is to achieve nirvana, an enlight- ened state free from suffering. ■ Judaism Middle East, now The belief in a single, all-powerful God is central to Judaism. ■ Israel—the Jewish The Torah—the instructions believed to be handed down from God to calendar begins Moses—encompasses Jewish law and custom. with the biblical time of the Creation ■ Christianity Jerusalem, now in Early followers believed that Jesus fulfilled the Jewish prophesy of the Israel—Christian Messiah. ■ calendar begins The Gospels in the Bible’s New Testament describe the teachings and life with the birth of of Jesus. ■ Jesus Beliefs include that Jesus is the son of God and that after crucifixion, he rose from the dead. Arabia in 622 A.D. ■ Its followers, called Muslims, believe in one all-powerful God. Islam ■ They adhere to the codes of living set forth in the holy book of Islam, the Qur’an (Koran). ■ The founder of Islam was Muhammed, a prophet who lived in Mecca in the sixth century, A.D. E XERCISE 1 The Middle AgesChoose the best answer to the question based on the As the Roman Empire began to fracture in the fourthinformation in the chart. The answer is on page 168. and fifth centuries, a period that historians refer to as the Middle Ages began in Western Europe. During this time, 1. What conclusion can you make based on the culture centered on Christianity as the Roman Catholic information in the chart? Church gained authority and missionaries spread Chris- a. All major religions believe in a single, all- tian ideas. A new social organization called feudalism powerful God. developed. Based on an agricultural society, this system b. Most religions developed in the last divided people into classes. The ruling class consisted of millennium. nobles, while the majority of people were in the peasant c. Religion is not a force in today’s world or serf class. Between the eleventh and fourteenth cen- culture. turies, European Christians led a series of wars called the d. Many of the world’s major religions have Crusades to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims. influenced human culture for over a thousand Although they did not achieve this goal, the wars brought years. Europe in contact with Arab culture, stimulated com- e. All of today’s major religions had their begin- merce between regions, and increased geographical nings in the Middle East. knowledge. By the fourteenth century, wars, famine, and the spread of the bubonic plague, or Black Death—an 135 – WORLD HISTORY –infectious disease that killed up to one-third of all Euro- logical progress. The scientific developments of sixteenthpeans—weakened the feudal economy. and seventeenth centuries acted as a precursor to the Enlightenment. Galileo Galilei, Nicolaus Copernicus, and Isaac Newton contributed new ideas about astron-The RenaissanceIn the 1400s, a rediscovery of Greek and Roman litera- omy and physics that challenged the understanding ofture led to the humanist movement in Europe, which the physical world. Later, the philosophy of John Lockecalled for a return to classical ideals. As Western Europe influenced attitudes about the role of the individual inbecame more stable again, a period of intellectual devel- ...