Belief System-set of principles that shape a person’s behavior and guide their interactions with the world
Traditional Religion-traditional religions are religions that are older than most major religions and have 5 characteristics
Universal Religion-universal religions are more widespread religions that are adaptable to new locations and cultures, have a broad appeal, and are tied to a powerful state
Polytheism-many gods
Animism-see the world as animate, spirits inhabiting everything
Syncretism-the mixing of religions
Shinto-indegionous religion of japan; centered around kami; animist
Kami-name of spirits in shinto religion
Yoruba-tribe in western nigeria
Olorun-high god in yoruba religion
Orissa-spirits who possessed people to deliver messages
Maurya Empire-unified india; shaundragupta founded it; fell because of treasury; had spy network; large military; civil laws to govern traders and merchants; had centralized government
Chandragupta Maurya-started the mauryan empire
Ashoka-ruler in maurya empire
Arthashastra-how to rule handbook for rulers in muryan empire
Rock and Pillar Edicts-where the laws of mauryan, mixed moral and law ideas, shared buddhist philosphy; were written by ashoka
Gupta Empire-golden age in china-scholars thrived
Sri Gupta-ruler of gupta empire
Chandragupta II-he expanded the gupta empire; patron of the arts-helped promote hinduism
Brahmanism-religion from central asia; turns into hinduism; agricultural structured developed from vedic religion
Hinduism-very decentralized religion; when mixed with brahmanism
Brahma-deity that represents birth
Vishnu-deity that represents existence/growth
Shiva-deity that represents destruction
*Mahabharata-*one of the epics
*Ramayana-*meant to be inspiring; looked at during times of adversary because characters face a lot of challenges
*Bhagavad Gita-*most famous part of the Mahabharata
Dharma-your responsibilities-how you should act; based on your varna(what class you are in)
Bhakti-self-devotion
Atman-your soul; you; consciousness
Karma-moral cause and effect-do the right thing-do dharma to get good karma
Samsara-reincarnation; you want out to live with brahma
Moksha-the release forms samsara being reunited with brahma
Brahman-world, spirit, reality truth
Brahma-god who is the life giving force of the universe
Maya-illusion of separation of brahman and atman
Complex Monotheism-one god who appears in different forms
Siddhartha Gautama-person who started buddhism; buddha
Buddha-started Buddhism, awoke by realizing everyone is united by suffering
Sangha-buddha’s close group-like jesus’ disciples
Dhamma (Dharma)-helps you end up where you should and is good for community; responsibilites
Middle Way-living in moderation
Four Noble Truths-suffering is in the world, suffering is caused by desires, remove suffering by changing our outlook and desires, move away from suffering through noble eigthfold path
Noble Eightfold Path-right view, intention, speech, actions, livelyhood, effort, mindfulness, concentration; how to get rid of your suffering
Nirvana-state of enlightenment
Theravada-the way of the ancestors; following buddhists examples as closely as possible; argued as a philosophy
Mahayana-more mystical; some have declared buddha divine
Vajrayana-practiced mostly in tibet; makes mandala art made of sand; yoga and meditation
Bodhisattva-people who have achieved all but enlightenment; stop being reincarnated; stay on earth to help other people on path to enlightenment
Ashoka-king who spread buddhism throughout asia; ruler of the mauryan empire-268-232; saw a rebellion against his empire where his people killed people and started to spread buddhism and follow its principle
Kushan Empire-Yuezhi; what is today afghanistan; has greek influence; adopted greek alphabet to create written language; had buddhism as primary religion
Kanishka the Great-one of the rulers of the kushan empire; devout buddhist; built stupas
Sogdians-300-700 CE, lived around modern tajikistan and uzbekistan
Stupa- domed monument that included a relic of buddha or scenes from his teachings
Kumarajiva-lived in 300-400 CE; buddhist translator who clarified ideas and made buddhist texts more accessible
Xuanzang- known was traveling widely and gathering untranslated texts and translating them into chinese
Six Dynasties Period-what happened after the collapse of the han dynasty; period of fighting were several states tried to take over
Judaism**-monotheistic religion that originated in israel; most of the history we know is from the bible/torah/koran; no archeological or historical evidence**
Torah-jewish bible
Pentateuch-jewish bible
Hebrew Bible-the torah that has jewish history and teachings; first five books of the bible
Patriarch-father
Abraham-patriarch of the jews
Semitic-what jewish and arab people are referred to as; descendants of shem
Israel-the name of the country for jews,
Israelite-citizen of israel, jews
Moses-man who freed the israelites from slavery in egypt
Canaan-where abrahams family moved to
Diaspora-jews exiled from rome for thousands of years
Judah-one of the jewish kingdoms
Judea-what israel and judah become after romans took over
Covenant-a promise with god that said that the jews were god’s chosen people
Babylonian Exile-period after conquest of Babylonians; period after Israel and Judah conquered
Abrahamic Religion-religions that recognize Abraham as their patriarch-first prophet
Orthopraxy-more concerned with what people did instead of what they thought
Orthodoxy-more conquered with what you think/believed then what you did
Christianity
Jesus-lived early century ce; took the sins of the world on his shoulders to wash our sins away
Pontius Pilate-high ranking official who is responsible for overseeing jesus’ trial
Paul of Tarsus-spread christianity across the globe
Imperial Cult-centered around the imperial family(emperors); augustus wanted caesar to be declared a god
Gospels-books of the bible that tell of the stories and teachings of jesus
Martyr-someone who suffers intensively and is typically killed for their faith
Vibia Perpetua-lived in carthage after rome took over; roman elite women who was a christian
arrested, held in prison and eventually put into gladiator game to be eaten by animals
one of the christian martyrs and later became a saint
servant of vibia is felicity who is romans first black saint
Constantine-fought to become roman emperor and had dream night of a roman battle
had a dream of the symbols of christ and thought that if you fought under the symbol you would win the battle
makes christianity legal as thank you for winning the
Nicene Creed-constantine calls bishops of christianity to make the religion more consistent
statement about what it means to be a christian
Byzantium-where constantine established-constantinople as capital of constantine’s empire
constantinople is now istanbul, turkey
byzantium is where byzantine empire gets the name