New Religious Map
• 200-600 CE (Decline of Classical Period) brings rise
to new world religions
• Plague related deaths scare people into religion
• Christianity spread throughout the Mediterranean
as the Western Roman Empire collapsed.
• Buddhism surged into eastern Asia
• Around 600 CE, Islam emerges out of the Arabian
Peninsula and becomes a new world religion
• As civilizations decline, religions gain importance.
Many people blended old cultural beliefs with new
religious beliefs in a process called syncretism
Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism
• Buddhism transforms- bodhisattvas hold that some
people can attain nirvana through their own
meditation and through working in the world as
saints to aid others in prayer and example. In
Mahayana (Buddhism), Gautama takes on a more
divine role as a savior. Women’s roles change also
• Buddhism spread to China and subsequently to
Korea and Japan
• Buddhism serves alongside Daoism and
Confucianism in China, but takes on a larger role in
Korea, Japan, and Vietnam
Christianity and Islam
• Jesus of Nazareth cements the Christian movement
believing in an afterlife
• After Jesus’ death, his disciples (apostles) spread his
teachings to inform people about his second
coming and the resurrection
• Belief, good works, and discipline of fleshly
concerns lead to heaven
• Roman poor convert to Christianity because they’re
tired of the self-indulgence of the Roman emperors
• Spread to Rome, but during the W. Roman decline
Christianity spreads to Persia, Axum, and Ethiopia
• Paul helps spread the religion to new parts, and
people begin to associate it by itself rather than a
branch of Judaism
• Christianity is increasingly organized through the
position of a bishop (leader), and also through the
collected teachings of Jesus’ apostles; these
teachings make up the Old Testament
Spread of Major Religions
• Hinduism in India, Buddhism in Southeast Asia,
Daoism in China, Christianity in Europe, Islam
throughout Arabia
• The spread suggests how important “currents”
could spread throughout the civilized world
• New religions emphasized a shift toward
monotheism as opposed to polytheism
Controversies over Christian Doctrines
• Idea of the Trinity
• Free will?
• By solving these issues, theologians instituted the
use of rational thought in a religion which
emphasizes faith
• Christ’s birthday is moved to the winter solstice to
keep from conflicting with older traditions such as
Easter (spring)
Successes
• Connected men in women
• Connected lower and upper classes
• Was able to keep traditional customs (Roman
architecture, etc.) while adopting new beliefs
(Christmas) syncretism
World Religion
• When the Roman Empire fell, Christianity was
still spreading
• Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam make up the
three main world religions
Developments
• Response to the collapse of classical forms- faced
the task of reviving and reworking their classical
institutions
• The need to react to the new religious mapsyncretism
• Increased skill in agriculture spreads challenges to
prior monopolistic civilizations