Eastern World Religions - Summer 2008

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Bryce Geigle

April 22, 2008

Religion 14B

C. McCandless

Religion in Western Civilization

During the expansion of Western Civilization, many different religions were formed. Each of these religions claims to be the true religion. Throughout this time period the Jewish faith, Roman Catholicism, the Greek Orthodox faith, and the Lutheran faith were all formed. Each of these different religions are an expansion of the other, yet are ultimately all different . While the main rivals of the religious world were the Greeks and the Romans, there were other religions that came before and after them (Neusner 4). Each of these religions played an important role in shaping civilization all together and they influenced how people of the time lived their daily life.

Israel was the very beginning of civilization and was shaped solely by religion. This religion was viewed as particularly uncommon because it was monotheistic, based on one God only.

The beliefs of all the Israelites were based off of the Hebrew Scripture other wise known as the Old Testament. Not only was Israel the first civilization, it was the first civilization that believed in human salvation in a special way. They had a highly developed vision of salvation. Salvation came about through a person's relationship with God. This was the center of salvation. If the relationship was strong and apparent, then the person would be saved. If it were not, the person would not be saved. Moses brought the Torah to the Jewish community. He received it from God himself. On Mount Sinai, God delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses and these were put in the Torah. The Torah described history and the series of laws that God wanted his people to follow. It also provided the definition of god and being a living human being. In...