Hellenistic Religion

The purpose of the work is to inform the audience of Greek religion and all that it entitles. In the article Cartwright describes the deities as well as the rituals for worship and celebrations. It also describes how people made a living out of the beliefs such as oracles and mystics. The work is written for anyone interested in learning more about ancient Greece. It has great significance to my topic because it depicts the important aspects of the religion. The strengths are how descriptive it is and how it touches on the most important topics. It's weaknesses are how short each section is.

In western ancient world, there were kings who tried to bring the world come together ideologically, culturally and politically. This caused lots of cultural exchange between people and help them understand and respect each other’s ways of life. On the other hand, politically, it created a lot of major wars. It took a large amount of resources and decades to end these wars. As a result of these wars, most kingdoms suffered from both economical and political problems. Therefore, it is fair to say that Greek/Hellenistic civilization could be characterized as being a period of intellectual and cultural achievement but political failure.

In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Durkheim argues that when it comes to religious praxis, the world is divided into two distinct categories, the sacred and the profane. Essentially, the profane describes the aspects of our lives that are ordinary and are meant to be kept separate from the sacred, which describes aspects that are to be treated as extraordinary and deserving respect. In reference to the sacred, Durkheim discusses totemism and its significance, explaining that totems are objects that embody the identity of a society, and can also be representative of the divine. He says that a totem “expresses and symbolizes two different sorts of things…it is the outward and visible form of what we have called the totemic principle or god. But it is also the symbol of the determined society called a clan” (Durkheim 2004:75).

After this last class lecture and reading in this week’s assigned chapters it was so striking to me to see the vast similarities between Hellenistic culture and Judaism culture as it relates to religion. I come from a primarily Southern Baptist heritage so much of these similarities I have never heard or seen before. What I have taken so far out of this class is a better understanding of how the religion of Christianity has come to fruition. For me this class has been very eye opening I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing things from a new perspective the development of Christianity. To me I want to gain new perspectives and I want to be able to question what I believe so in essence I can have a broader view of Christianity.

One of the earliest evidences of the belief in a higher power comes from deep within the “Lascaux Labyrinth”, a deep cave “decorated by our Paleolithic ancestors in the stone age, seventeen thousand years ago”(Armstrong 2). The great numbers and locations of art within the Lascaux and surrounding region gives evidence that these were sacred places for the purpose of rituals, and some have compared these dwellings to temples (Armstrong 3). Whether art within cave dwellings dating back to the Paleolithic era, to magnificent churches rising to great heights around the world, the wondrous temples of the Mayans, a mountain that appears to seamlessly morph into the city of Machu Picchu, to trailers, tents and fortified compounds, belief in a power higher than one’s self has been deeply ingrained throughout centuries and a multitude of cultures. These different places are what many refer to as a church, a place to record and follow the rituals specific to their belief and to worship. Through the generations of the development of the human psyche, belief in a higher power is taught young and ingrained for many, yet meaningless for some. Furthermore, throughout the evolution of many centuries, it is inevitable that branches of these religions will follow a different path, create new churches to better practice their views of religion, and for some, belief in a higher power can be contorted to the preaching’s and worship of hate. There is a fine line between preaching scriptures and

PAPER #1 The six dimensions of religion include ethical, ritual, emotional, institutional, cognitive and aesthetic. The six dimensions can be applied to any and all religions that exist or did exist at some point. A good example of a religion from the past that the dimensions can be applied too is the Ancient Greek religion. Being polytheistic religion in which many gods ruled many different domains of the earth, the six dimensions can be applied to the Ancient Greek religion but some dimensions are more influential than others because of the way the Ancient Greek religion is structured.

Now that we have uncovered some of the significance of the location of the text both in relation to the surrounding narratives, and geographically it is time to look at each of the accounts, and how they compare to one another. The account of the miracle in Mark is the longest, and most detailed of the three, and I will be exploring it first. Luke’s account is very similar to Mark’s, and in fact it is believed that Luke used Mark as the sole source for his account of the story, and simply changed the language possibly changing the meaning, and focus of the text for his Gospel , so I will look at his narrative second. Finally Matthew is the shortest, and least detailed account of this narrative containing some

Religion and Philosophy were very important during the Hellenistic era due to the mixing of people. When new cities were built by Hellenistic kings, temples were also built honoring the old Olympian gods of Greece. Religious groups sponsored literary, musical, and athletic contests (McKay et al, Western Society, 107). The festivals were both intellectual and physical. I think these events helped shape everyday life by allowing people to get involved.

The greek people are so unaware of what is about to happen and it truly heartbreaking that this is is the twilight of the hole greek civilization. Nevertheless this period is so fascinating and interesting this is the Hellenistic Age. The Hellenistic age begun after the death of Alexander the grate. Like I said earlier he left no new successor so this caused in fighting and the empire was divided up against the wars generals they .There were three empires would form there would dynasts from Alexander's empire; there was Antigonids in Macedonia and Greece, the Seleucids in Perissa and the ptolemies in Egypt. The people did not go back to their way of life because they were ruled by greeks and macedonians, so the local

When exploring each of the specific elements that make up the Greek culture, one can see that their history of religion is vast. To understand the religious practices of the Ancient Greeks, we must first begin to examine the cultural practices. I will be describing Greek religion as it was practiced in the Archaic and Classical Period, which ranged around 800 B.C. to 323 B.C. When discussing the Classical Period we enter the realm of polytheism which has no attachment to church or body of dogma. Although the Greeks believed in multiple gods, there was no denying that the conduct of the gods was not all acceptable to Greek thought. The Greeks kept mythological stories of the gods at heart, but relied on having the ability to think rationally, or have ‘human reason.’ This was the Greek way and it was their idea of rational thinking. When it came to living, the primary aim of Greek life is health and goodness. In order to gain this, they had to have religious sacrifices. I would like to discuss these religious practices of Ancient Greek worship, sacrifice, holidays and burials because it is important to learn about and from one of the greatest cultures in history.

Ancient Greece has been a religion- centered culture since the earliest period of habitation in Greece, the Pre-Mycenaean/Mycenaean period. Also through to the Dark Ages to the Classical period. It is a religiously centered civilization, and did have significant changes in the how it was incorporated into people’s daily lives. Religion is important to know about the Ancient Greeks because through it we are able to understand how they lived their lives.

There was no job or social need that was not connected to the worship of some god: from farming to education, from the fine arts to hunting, from military

The architecture of both the Christian and Greek religion have deep roots in their respective religions. Greek temples were usually rectangular in shape, and consisted of columns on the exterior sides of the structure. Some noteworthy exception to this rule was the unique Erechtheion of Athens with its somewhat different Caryatid columns and the temples of the Cyclades which only had columns on the front side of the structure. Christian churches were originally based off of a number of features taken from the Ancient Roman period. Early Christian communities used one specific feature for most of their original churches, the Atrium. An atrium is a courtyard surrounded by a large colonnade.

As civilization has progressed through the ages, many religions have arisen and taken hold around the world, two if the most interesting, being the religious beliefs of the ancient Mesopotamian and the Greeks. These two religions were practiced in different areas and at different times and, therefore, show that religion has played a critical role in every society and civilization. No matter how it is organized or what type of god is worshiped, a society would be nothing without some kind of deity to organize it. In comparing the religious beliefs of the Mesopotamian and the Ancient Greeks religious components highlighted including the style of worship, the temples

The Hellenic and Hellenistic shift was a turning point for Greek culture. The Hellenic are those who lived in ancient Greece before Alexander the Great. The Hellenistics are those who lived in the period after Alexander the Great’s conquest. Alexander the Great was a mighty and strong leader of the Greek people. The people that were under his following respected him greatly. We can tell the drastic changes that occurred after Alexander Great was leader by the art, philosophies, and religion. The Hellenistic Changes that occurred showed us that the Hellenistic priorities transformed drastically from what the Hellenic ways were like.