“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

1. “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates

2. The Greeks • Greek thinkers of the classical era generated no lasting religious tradition of world historical importance • Rather quarreling gods of Mount Olympus, secret fertility cults, oracles predicting the future, and ecstatic worship of Dionysus, the god of wine • But the distinctive feature –To affirm that the world was a physical reality governed by natural laws, and to assert that human rationality could both understand these laws and work out a moral and ethical life

4. The Greeks separated science and philosophy from religion • Developed a way of thinking that had some similarity to the secularism of Confucian thought in China • Greece’s location on the margins of the great civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Persia encouraged intellectual activity • Between 600 and 300 BCE, during the Athenian golden age, the Greeks developed artistic, literary, and theatrical traditions that still influence people today

6. A Greek emphasis on argument, logic, and relentless questioning as well as its confidence in human reason and figuring out the world without reference to the gods • Socrates (469-399 BCE) was an Athenian philosopher who engaged individuals in conversation about the good life -Socrates used a method of constant questioning of the assumptions and logic of his students’ thinking -Challenged conventional ideas about wealth and power and urged the pursuit of wisdom and virtue

7. Socrates was critical of Athenian democracy and on occasion had positive things to say about militaristic Sparta, the enemy of Athens • Authorities accused Socrates of corrupting the youth of Athens and sentenced him to death -Socrates was forced to commit suicide by drinking poison

9. Many classical Greek thinkers lived on the Ionian coast of Anatolia and applied a rational and questioning way of knowing to the world of nature • Thales predicted an eclipse of the sun and argued that the moon simply reflected the sun’s light • Democritus suggested that atoms collided in various configurations to form visible matter • Pythagoras believed that beneath the chaos and complexity of the visible world lay a simple, unchanging mathematical order • These thinkers had a rational and nonreligious explanation for the material world

11. Hippocrates traced the origins of epilepsy to simple heredity • Herodotus wrote about the Greco-Persian Wars as an effort to discover “the reason why they fought one another” -His assumption that human reason lay behind the conflict not the whims of the gods made him a historian in the modern sense • Ethics and government also figured prominently in Greek thinking

13. Plato (429-348 BCE) wrote in The Republic about a society led by a “philosopher-king” -A “philosopher-king” would be able to penetrate the many illusions of the material world and grasp the “world of forms” in which ideas such as goodness, beauty, and justice lived in a real way • Aristotle (384-322 BCE), a student of Plato and a teacher of Alexander the Great, wrote on practically everything -Emphasized empirical observation -Famous for his reflections on ethics, a product of rational training and cultivated habit that could be learned

15. The Greek Legacy • Greek rationalism, art, literature, and theater persisted for a long time after the golden age • The Roman Empire facilitated the spread of Greek culture • Western Europeans rediscovered classical Greek ideas after the twelfth century CE, as scholars gained access to classical Greek texts -From that point on, the Greek legacy has been viewed as a central element of “Western” civilization

17. Greek ideas played a role in formulating an updated Christian theology, in fostering Europe’s Scientific Revolution, and in providing a point of departure for much of European philosophy • But the Greek legacy had entered Islamic culture long before the European rediscovery -Stimulated Muslims in the fields of medicine, astronomy, mathematics, geography, and chemistry -Largely from Arabic translations of Greek writers that Europeans rediscovered the Greeks

18. Jesus • A young Jewish peasant/carpenter in the remote province of Judaea in the Roman Empire • A brief three-year career of teaching and miracle-working • Came into conflict with local authorities • Was executed (crucified) • His teachings became the basis of the world’s second great universal religion

20. Like Buddha, urged the renunciation of wealth and emphasized the importance of love or compassion -Buddha spoke of metta or loving-kindness -Jesus encouraged love of neighbor and enemies • But unlike Buddha, Jesus inherited from his Jewish tradition an intense devotion to a single personal deity with whom he was on intimate terms • Jesus’ teachings also had a sharper social and political edge -Spoke clearly on behalf of poor and oppressed -Criticized the hypocrisies of the powerful

21. Definition: Agape The Love of God for mankind (Christian theology)

22. While it seems like that Jesus intended to reform Jewish traditions, Christianity emerged as a distinct religion • Jesus soon became divine in the eyes of his followers • The transformation of Christianity from a small Jewish sect to a world religion began with Saint Paul (10-65 CE) -Early convert -Missionary activity in eastern Roman Empire led to the founding of small Christian communities that included non-Jews (Gentiles) • Earliest converts were usually lower-stratum people

24. The spread of Christianity was often accompanied by reports of miracles and healings • The exclusive monotheism of Christians led to Rome’s intermittent persecution of Christians • Persecution ended with Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in the early fourth century CE • Roman emperors began to use Christianity to hold together its diverse and weakening empire -Emperor Theodosius (reigned 379-395 CE) banned all polytheistic ritual sacrifices and ordered their temples closed

25. As Christianity spread, it developed a hierarchical organization with patriarchs, bishops, and priests • The bishop of Rome emerged as the dominant leader, or pope, of the Church in the western half of the empire, but this rule was not recognized in the east -This division contributed to the later split between Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox branches of Christendom • Doctrinal differences also affected unity of Christianity – A series of church councils at Nicaea (325 CE), Chalcedon (451 CE), and Constantinople (553 CE) sought to define an “orthodox” or correct position on matters of faith

27. Strayer Questions • What are the distinctive features of the Greek intellectual tradition? • How would you compare the lives and teachings of Jesus and the Buddha? In what different ways did the two religions evolve after the deaths of their founders? • In what ways was Christianity transformed in the five centuries following the death of Jesus?